Ryuzaki Sato
by Arika Ito
Summary: Prince of Tennis AU Genderbent!Sakuno. Ryuzaki Sato considers himself to a very normal preteen boy at the Seishun Gakuen that has a not so normal tennis team. He's constantly dragged into the various schemes that the Regulars cook up including the one where they believe that Sato and the new first year, Echizen, are madly in love and need to get together. Sato begs to differ.
1. Chapter 1

**Title**: (you choose)

**Summary**: Ryuzaki Saku is timid, he stutters, his hair is too long, and worst of all, he's no good at tennis. So Ryoma wonders why he feels so drawn to the boy... Boy!Sakuno

**Plot**: I just see a lot of FemRyo out there and decided-why not somebody else for a change? And because I'm a yaoi fangirl...why not a _girl _from PoT? XD Thus, Ryuzaki Sakuno became Ryuzaki Saku (or Taku, or Haku, or whatever you're comfortable with). And no, she's not _crossdressing_; she's now a he. [_insert maniacal laughter here_]

**Pairing**: SakuRyo...I guess... Who do you think tops? I'm so used to uke!Ryoma now, I can't even tell.

**Genre**: Humor/Romance (crack, if need be)

**Rating**: (you choose)

Ryuzaki Sato was lost. Not just lost, but lost in the train station, the worst place to be lost ever. Because you could land anywhere if you weren't careful. Which he hadn't, so now he was lost. Again.

He wasn't sure how he got there or where he was or which way he was supposed to go. This still didn't help his situation. There was a group of loud high schoolers that were loud, annoying and kept nearly hitting him with the racket they were swinging around. Would they be laughing if they gave him a concussion? He couldn't do anything since they were high schoolers and they outnumbered him. He fingered his shoulder length locks absentmindedly, he should consider getting a haircut soon. One of his grandmother's friends had mistaken him for a girl and had complimented his grandmother on raising such a beautiful granddaughter. Even if the baa-chan was old, he knew even that was a little too far.

"Hahahahaha! You idiots still don't know the rules for gripping!" One of the highschoolers said who was still standing up and swing his racket around. "To hit the top spin, it's Western Grip, ya know?"

"I'm telling you, keep the racket like this and hold it like you're shaking hands. Stupid! This is common sense!" As he hung the racket harshly, nearly hitting Sato.

One of the rude boy's friends, who were sitting next to Sato, agreed, "OH! Of course! Sasabe is different!" _Suck up_, Sato thought scathingly. He wasn't in the best mood because of the near accidents. It didn't mean that he would protest to the older teenagers.

But before Sato was hit, a confident cocky boy that looked to be Sato's age said," Yo, can't you keep it down?"

Sato jerked in surprise because he thought the boy was sleeping.

Sasabe dropped his racket in surprise and laughed loudly, hiding his surprise. "This is embarrassing. Getting told off by a little kid and all!"

"Bingo!" Said the boy, pointing his fingers. "Holding the upper part of the racket and clamping it, that's the correct Western Grip. Another thing, the thing you said about 'Shaking Hands.' That's the Western Grip, it's common for people to learn it the opposite way." He answered tilting his hat and reclining in his seat.

"We are now at the station at Sei Haruda! Sei Haruda!" The train announcer rattled throughout the vehicle.

Sei Haruda, he knew that place! It was where his grandma said for him to meet her. Feeling excited, Sato walked out the train and towards a pillar and leaned towards it.


	2. Chapter 2

He was undeniably, absolutely nervous. Excited, but still... nervous. It was his first day of middle school and so many new people were crowding the classrooms. His grandmother taught at Seigaku so it wasn't that bad.

"Sato-kun!" A tackle from behind sent him off-balance and he almost fell. The keyword, however, was almost. He instead shifted his weight and grounded his feet, keeping him upright. Thank god for tennis or on the first day he would have made a fool out of himself.

"Tomo-chan?" He asked, grunting. He didn't have eyes behind his back. But then again at Seigaku, there were only two options on the person could be. He was sure that Eiji-senpai didn't have that high of a voice.

"Yup!" She chirped, cheerfully. "We're finally here! In middle school! Aren't you excited?" Her big eyes blinked hyperactively at the first year, her best friend since second grade.

"Yeah, sure." Sato answered, shrugging her arm off. He didn't like being touched.

"Mou, Sato-kun, you could act more excited!"

Sato Ryuzaki stared blankly at his childhood and best friend. She knew him better than to expect that.

She grinned cheekily and Sato sighed. His best friend at times was awesome but also completely and utterly insane. "So what clubs are you planning to sign up for?" Sato asked absentmindedly.

"Tennis!" This shocked Sato.

"..."

"Sato-kun, don't act like that, I could be really good at it." Tomoka Osakada defended herself.

"You don't even know how to play." Sato retorted quickly. He was all for Tomoka to learn how to play tennis, but he knew that Tomoka could be a bit of a fangirl at times and with people like Mitsu-nii or Fuji-senpai gracing the courts of Seigaku, things around her would get loud and fast. People with sensitive ears would soon learn to keep their distance around her.

"I could learn and you could help me," Tomoka replied cheerily.

Shaking his head, Sato answered, "Let's just get to class."

* * *

In his relatively smallish class, Sato knew about five people. Most of them were from his old elementary school but there was one that he knew would shake the foundations of the school and the Regulars of Seigaku's tennis club. _Echizen Ryoma,_ the boy he met briefly at the tournament.

He immediately recognized the name from the tournament his grandmother forced him to play and from the picture that graced one of his grandmother's photo albums, _Echizen Nanjirou_.

The famed Samurai Nanjirou who retired abruptly when he was just one game away from winning a Grand Slam, Wimbledon if you wanted precision. He played and won only 37 ATP tournaments. Watching a video recording of match, in those few moments before Nanjirou would serve for the match and but suddenly announce his retirement, was inspiring but sad. A middle school player coached by his grandmother could become a pro and a successful one at that.

He knew the odds. Men like the Big Four only came once in a lifetime and it was possible they hadn't reached their peak yet. The pro circuit was treacherous, one small injury could take you out for years if you weren't careful. It was expensive too. You had to consistently be making money and winning matches to afford everything. Traveling around the world wasn't cheap. Plus, all that losing probably wasn't doing much for your ego.

So, the Seigaku tennis club was in for a shock of their lives and Sato couldn't wait to see what would happen next. He was thankful that first years weren't allowed to compete in the first rankings tournament of the year because he would not want to see the carnage that Echizen would leave behind him.

* * *

Never mind, apparently Mitsu-nii was willing to bend the rules this year. And yes, the carnage was terrible. Echizen ripped through Kaidoh-senpai and Inui-senpai with ease that probably surprised everyone in the club, despite a few struggles in the beginning. Inui-senpai was, and for the past three months, the third best player in the club after Mitsu-nii and Fuji-senpai but with his loss to his kohais, it only proved that it was false and that data wasn't everything.

Mitsu-nii had approached Sato with the inquiry on if he wanted to play in the ranking tournament but Sato quickly turned him down. He wasn't ready. He needed to take his doubles play to another level and his singles would never stand up to the regulars.

While it was fun imagining it, Sato knew he would never be able to play against people like Momo-senpai or Kawamura-senpai. He could probably take on Oishi-senpai or Eiji-senpai but the problem was, they were the Golden Pair. Seigaku had a problem with their doubles teams. No one in the regulars really knew how to play doubles except the Golden Pair themselves.

Fuji-senpai could fake it pretty well but everyone knew that singles was where Seigaku's strength laid. So what did teams do? They exploited it.

* * *

Sato was not impressed. He knew it. He knew it. He knew it. He knew it. Echizen didn't have any talent for doubles. He and Momoshirou could have lost that set. If they had played anybody better, they would be crushed, and it would serve them right.

He watched as his grandmother (fittingly) punished the two teenagers for their stupidity. He could imagine the thoughts flying through their heads. _never playing doubles again_. And it made sense, who'd want to play a position in which they were punished for winning. It wasn't, at least for Sato's grandmother, that they won, it was the manner in how they won. They deconstructed the match until it was basically two singles players playing on one side of the court.

Sato hummed cheerfully, while Echizen didn't have any talent for it, Momo-senpai could easily be trained to become a doubles player. It would take time though.

"That was pitiful, Momo-senpai," Sato commented, reclining on the bench next to the two kneeling players. He watched as Eiji-senpai and Oishi-senpai spin to see who would get serve or side.

"Ack! Sato, when did you get here?" Momoshirou half-yelled and half-asked.

"Long enough to see your match," Sato yawned. His duties were mainly managerial; he also assisted Inui-senpai in his training menus. "Like I said, pitiful."

"While aren't you saying this to Echizen," Momoshirou jerked his elbow at the first year.

"Cause he doesn't have any experience playing doubles." Sato answered coolly, arching his eyebrow. "We spent half a year working on tactics. I take a small break to prepare for my entrance exams and you've already forgotten them. Nice."

Momoshirou sputtered. "I didn't forget. I just didn't have any time to work on it with Echizen." He defended himself.

"Then why did you insist on playing doubles if you weren't ready?" Sato retorted quickly. Shaking his head, Sato said, "That really isn't the way to go about things, you know, senpai."

* * *

Sato swallowed harshly. Echizen's racket flew up and hit him right above the eye during his match with Shinji of Fudomine. It was an accident he knew but still, Echizen was bleeding. Reaching into his pocket, he offered his handkerchief to Oishi who was preparing the medical kit to help Echizen.

He began breathing again as he saw it was really only superficial damage, the cut above his eye. However, Sato couldn't believe that Echizen was willing to play against Shinji with only one eye and with only ten minutes to finish the match. His grandmother was crazy or Echizen was stubborn. He was willing to bet that it was a mixture of the two.

And the fact he won the match... there were no words to describe Echizen's talent. Shinji's Spot technique would have left most players crippled. Sato imagined that Echizen only won because he had Nitoryuu, the ability to switch between hands. It prevented the paralysis from building up too much in his wrists and with the fact he could alternate them very easily meant that the paralysis couldn't build up at all.

So there was a brain inside of his head.

* * *

**Comments: **

In this, Sato is a cheeky brat who knows his strengths and weaknesses. This Sato Ryuzaki is still kind of shy but not really. Being around his cousins has jaded him to all sorts of weirdness. He'll mostly be making internal commentary to himself.

Facts about Sato Ryuzaki:

He's really talented at piano. Really talented.

He has an extremely large family who likes their pranks.

His parents are dead and he lives with his grandmother.

His specialty is doubles but can do singles.

Tezuka taught him how to play tennis so Sato calls him Mitsu-nii

He knows how to cook

He's pretty much the perfect wife except for the fact he's a guy

He is also gay

His family knows and accepts it

Most of his family did not go to Seigaku

He's good at school, top 50

He's a righty and now 5'3 (middle school height)

Most of his doubles includes shadowing a player and making a move when they least expect it.

So some of it, I got from Anna Nigma's story _The Butterfly Effect_, a Sakuno-centered AU. However, I will be approaching this differently.


	3. Chapter 3

Sato was going to enjoy this. Mitsu-nii was explaining to the regulars the exercise of the practice. They would be playing matches regarding their control and strength. It was known as _zone practice_.

Here was a fine example of exactly why Sato was glad he wasn't part of the regulars. Other than being the worst person to ever be part of the regulars, he wouldn't have to drink what he considered the worst drink ever to grace the planet. _Inui special veggie juice._

He wasn't sure what was in it, but he didn't want to find out. It bubbled when it shouldn't have, it smelled horrendous and it was the ugliest green-brownish color he had ever imagined.

Sato didn't know how Inui got the okay to feed the regulars that kind of drink but he was okay with it. As long as he didn't drink it.

He wasn't sure how Fuji-senpai liked drinking it but then again, Fuji-senpai had always been kind of strange.

Now for the most interesting match of the day, Echizen versus Eiji-senpai, an all-rounder versus a serve and volleyer, not something people saw every day. Most people were baseliners, preferring to slug it out with their improved rackets and different strings. Net players were an older generation, players like Pete Sampras or John McEnroe. Although most of the great matches involved baseliners versus serve and volleyers so it wasn't too hard to find on Youtube.

Eiji-senpai quickly ran up to net, unsurprisingly. No one at Seigaku could surpass him there. But what was really exciting was the fact that Echizen approached the net as well. It was pretty sly of Inui-senpai to sneak that last minute rule change, he hadn't seen it when Inui-senpai was coming up with the exercise.

And of course, Echizen had to do something that only Roger Federer could do on a regular basis. He did a tweener; a shot between the legs while running backwards. Most people, generally men trying to impress, hit a vital part of themselves and was left on the ground groaning or they fell over because of loss of balance.

But you know what, Echizen had talent and potential, so it was no surprise that the shot worked. It was no surprise that he tried avoiding his drink because he lost, acted arrogant (but was it really arrogance if he could beat all the players?), and ran towards the fountain after drinking Inui's vile brew.

* * *

He hoped that Mitsu-nii's appointment with the doctor had good news. Stupid morons, they were jealous of a talent that they should have appreciated; Sato had been around ten when Mitsu-nii had been injured. He had come over to the courts to see if Mitsu-nii was open for a hitting lesson when he found him lying on the ground, surrounded by his classmates, clutching his arm (more importantly, his elbow) and silently screaming.

Things weren't the same after that. At least Yamato-buchou had immediately ejected the perpetrators from the club when he heard of his kohai's grievous injury. Sato also left a little surprise for them at their shoe lockers, doing something he rarely did ever.

It felt good, putting in a bag of fake snow that exploded all over their face when they opened the locker. His grandmother made him run laps around the school after she had heard what he had done. He knew that she had been secretly pleased with him.

He had errands for his grandmother to run. He had to buy new grips and strings for the tennis club and also some groceries. It was a pretty simple chore.

He left the grocery store carrying a bag full of fuji apples (Fuji-senpai's favorite) and some celery when he happened upon a slender Himalayan cat. It was cute, with a brown face that faded into a creamy color.

He put down his bags to put out a hand that the cat tentatively licked. He smiled softly and ran a hand down the cat's fur coat. The cat flicked its tail when Sato finished running his hands down his soft coat and flounced away.

* * *

The tennis club was gathered at the Tokyo tennis grounds, it was almost ten and Echizen WASN'T THERE.

His grandmother was uneasy and irritated. "Just what is Ryoma doing?"

"If all 8 players do not register by 10 o'clock together, then we'll be disqualified." Fuji mentioned.

"How annoying," Inui commented.

"Where's Oishi? Did he contact Echizen yet?" Mitsu-nii asked the non-regulars. All he got were shakes of heads.

"Echizen just called me!" Oishi yelled about ten feet away. He said that he's a pregnant woman in labor to get to a hospital."

Sato snorted. The second years expressed clear shakes of disapprovals.

"If he's on his way then he should be able to make it to the competition," she muttered something under her breath. She reached into her handbag, taking out a Seigaku hat. "But we'll have to get in first."

All of the regulars assembled glanced at Sato, sitting on a fence.

"What?"

* * *

"This is a bad bad bad bad bad idea." Sato rocked himself on his heels, being forcibly dragged by Momo-senpai and Kaidoh-senpai.

Mitsu-nii gave the form to the official. "Number 128, Seigaku's 8 competitors reporting."

"Alright, ok... there's a freshman competing this year? Good luck," the official commented skeptically.

"Yes," Sato said stiffly, keeping his gaze low as to not make eye contact. He didn't feel good about this. Someone would figure out something, Echizen had darker hair than him. It wouldn't work.

* * *

He was going to kill Echizen. Slowly. And he'd enjoy it too. Seigaku easily reached the quarters with ease. They would have to face St. Rudolph, which would be an interesting match. Rumors were that there was a new manager there who was adept at collecting information, something like Inui but much more malicious.

And with Fuji Yuuta, the legendary Southpaw Killer, it would be a bit more difficult. Sato was willing to be that the manager had all the information on Seigaku's regulars compiled and filed away in his memory. But as Echizen had proved with Inui-senpai, data wasn't everything and people could easily surpass said data.

He wasn't sure what his grandmother was planning, putting Momo-senpai and Kaidoh-senpai together in doubles. It would be like a ticking bomb, someone would get hurt and it would be loud.

Their playing was impressive as Momo-senpai somehow remembered his training with Sato on doubles. Kaidoh-senpai was pretty good except for his backhand. He made a mental note to inform Inui-senpai about the backhand practice his cousin told him about. It would help Kaidoh-senpai by the next match.

He glanced behind him, checking out the Golden Pair's match. It wasn't good. It was 3-1 and they were down a break. For Doubles One, it was a matter of having their partnership being weakened. With Yoshirou's strange ball, Eiji-senpai's strength was limited, a lot and if one person wasn't working, the Golden Pair wouldn't work in general. For Doubles Two, it was mostly because their opponent's teamwork was a lot better than Kaidoh-senpai and Momo-senpai's teamwork.

Both double matches were tight but it was still anyone's game.

* * *

Mizuki Hajime was a bastard. A complete bastard. Sato didn't like cursing too much but really, deliberately interfering in Momo-senpai and Kaidoh-senpai's match went too far.

Sato was all for psychological warfare during a match (breaking an opponent mentally was the surest way to victory) but when an outsider interfered in a match, it crossed a line. Which was exactly why he didn't feel too guilty when he saw Duckface being slammed with a Dunk Smash. Okay, he felt a little guilty since the guy was on the ground for a while and he was knocked out but still it was pretty satisfying even if he didn't hit the shot.

Also teaching Fuji Yuuta a technique that potentially destroy all his chances for playing tennis was a very stupid move. Fuji-senpai may have look calm and serene and absolutely harmless. But everyone knew there was something dangerous in him. Something that wasn't shown very often unless they triggered his berserk button, which Mizuki exactly did.

And that was why Fuji-senpai completely obliterated Mizuki, coming back from 0-5 and which also proved that Fuji-senpai was never to be messed with because a sleeping tiger perfectly described him.

* * *

Bleagh. They were running and Inui had his special 'Penal Tea' out, which now that Sato thought about it, the name reminded of him the English word _penalty_, which according to his teacher was a punishment. Ironically, that was exactly what it was; a penalty for not being able to keep up with regulars. Inui-senpai wasn't running so that meant Sato was the only non-regular keeping up until the thirtieth lap. It sucked.

Inui-senpai had insisted that Sato wear leg weights like the others but his were much lighter than theirs so it wasn't as bad. Again, Sato was impressed that the others were able to keep up that kind of speed, especially Kaidoh-senpai and Momo-senpai, the current leaders of the group.

Somehow, Sato didn't know how Kawamura-senpai suddenly went into burning mode, which threw Kaidoh-senpai and Momo-senpai off their pace and allowed the others and him to reach their speed, which meant anybody could be the victim to the sludge.

As they turned the final stretch, everyone was equally matched and they sprinted toward the end, as it being no one with the possible exception of Fuji-senpai wanted to drink the foul brew that was _special veggie juice_ in a ridiculously big mug.

They all reached the finish line at the same time and with that, no one had to drink Inui's juice. Sato could secretly tell that Inui-senpai was disappointed at the fact.

"Ne, Sato-kun, you're really impressive! Keeping up with the regulars like that!" Horio-kun remarked.

"Really?" Sato responded, wiping sweat off his brow with his sleeve. "I guess."

* * *

**Comments:**

Okay, so Sato isn't 5'3", cause that make him about three to four inches taller than Ryoma (why do you have to be so short), now he's about 5'0". So he's my height except that I'm four years older than him.

More fun facts:

Make that top 40 for his grades

His favorite subjects are history and literature

Worst is English

He has fifteen cousins and they are all older than him

He has about three in high school right now

They are spread throughout Japan because they can

Everyone respects their obaa-chan because they like living

Sato's scarily attentive to details, which protects him from pranks

Even though he doesn't have to dodge them because who'd mess with the youngest member of the family

Not all of them play tennis, actually only about five of them do really, which includes Sato

His best friend is Tomoka Osakada

If neither of them get married by age thirty, they promised each other they would live together


	4. Chapter 4

They were playing Yamabuki in semifinals; they had beaten Fudomine by a forfeit and Sato got the chills looking at the Singles 2 player, Akutsu Jin. He had talent but there was something much darker inside of him. How Kawamura had been friends with him, it boggled Sato's mind.

Although Yamabuki won Doubles 2 6-3 with their communicative play, Seigaku quickly struck back with the team play of their Golden Pair, winning 7-5, another close set that tied the score.

Now it was Momo-senpai's turn, playing Sengoku, a third year whose play style was interesting, relying mostly on luck and his vision. This was psychological play Sato approved of, when Sengoku hit a smash almost as fast as Momo-senpai's signature play, the Dunk Smash.

Striking down Momo-senpai when he was confident and breaking his momentum was perfectly reasonable in Sato's book. Skill was useful but if you lost focus and got mad, skill wouldn't be able to dig you out of the hole you would be in.

Kudos to both Sengoku and Momo-senpai for staying calm; especially with the completion of the Jack Knife during the match, a technique that some high schoolers would struggle with, which led to Momo-senpai winning Singles 3 with the score 7-5. It was another close match that made the score 2-1. This match with Yamabuki was turning out to be very good and very competitive.

The real show was about to begin with Akutsu Jin versus Echizen Ryoma in Singles 2. Akutsu Jin with his raw talent but no technique was something dangerous. A shot most considered difficult to return, all Akutsu would do was contort his body and slam the ball even harder than it was hit.

Sato wasn't sure what would happen if Echizen provoked him but that was exact kind of thing Echizen would do.

* * *

Coming off a high from winning the Tokyo Preliminary, Seigaku was reaching another stressful time in their club. This time the conflict was inner rather than outside; it was the June Intraschool Ranking tournament, everyone who was a second year or higher had the right to compete.

Unless they were invited to compete by the Captain of the club, which Echizen Ryoma and Ryuuzaki Sato were invited, only Sato declined. He wasn't anywhere near ready. He may have been the second strongest non-regular of the club but he wasn't even near the skill of Inui Sadaharu.

Block A was probably the most interesting of the blocks. There were four blocks and you had be the top two to qualify to become a regular, which was why Block A was the most interesting. It had Mitsu-nii, Momo-senpai and Inui-senpai battling it out for the two spots.

He felt bad for Momo-senpai who would lose his position, having lost to both Mitsu-nii and Inui-senpai. The Intraschool Ranking tournament was a dog's world, but whoever deserved to win, they would win.

The most anticipated match of the day was Mitsu-nii versus Inui-senpai. Another good match, the resident data man versus the unmovable captain of the court, could Inui force Mitsu-nii's hand and show him his trump card? A move that Sato never saw countered except during their matches?

Mitsu-nii did and Inui had lost. Mitsu-nii was really unbeatable in the club but things didn't always work out the way the world expected though.

* * *

Oishi-senpai and Mitsu-nii went to the Kanto Tournament Selection, where Seigaku would be seeded 16th and the champions of Nationals for two years in a row, Rikkai Dai would be seeded 1st. The other fourteen teams would be left to draw their spots.

It went unspoken but everyone knew how important the first few matches were. The very next day, it was announced that they would have to play Hyotei Gakuen, a rival of theirs. Sato had heard of their captain, an extremely strong player who was even more arrogant that Echizen, if that was even possible or probable. Of course, like Echizen, he also had the talent to back it up.

His cousin, Ryuzaki Kazuhiro, spoke of the third year fondly, kind of. Although in his opinion, Kazuhiro was always kind of touched in the head. Kazuhiro said that Atobe could go as far as he wanted. In fact, he said that the current Hyotei was seriously talented and if Seigaku wasn't careful, they could lose to them.

Well, with Oishi-senpai currently missing, things weren't looking good. He had called ahead of time to tell them that Momo-senpai was running back with his jersey and that he had to be subbed in, that he had broken his wrist, helping a pregnant woman to the hospital. Oh, the situational irony.

Sato would have laughed, long and hard, if it weren't such a dire situation. Doubles 2 would be Momo-senpai and Eiji-senpai instead of new pair Kaidoh-senpai and Inui-senpai. It would be an acrobatic showdown.

It started out with Momo-senpai serving but through nullification of Eiji-senpai's acrobatic play by Mukahi Gakuto, they were swiftly down a break and then down 3-0 because none of their special techniques.

During the break, while they were toweling off sweat, Sato motioned them to come over. "Hey, why don't you try the **i **formation?"

"What?" They responded in unison.

"During Momo-senpai's next serve, try the **i **formation with signals." Sato suggested. "What?" He asked to their bewildered looks. "Right, sorry, it is also known as the Australian Formation." He revealed the name that most Japanese players, including the Golden Pair, used.

"You want us to try that?" Momo-senpai asked confused. The Australian formation relied on a certain degree of trust, trust that a doubles pair like them didn't have, yet.

"Yeah, with signals." Sato replied. "Like," he turned around and pointed to the left with his right index finger behind his back, "this means Eiji-senpai will go left and Momo-senpai will go right, or," he pointed down with his index finger, "Eiji-senpai will wait and strike, or," he stuck out with his right pinkie," Eiji-senpai will go right and Momo-senpai will go left." At their bewildered looks again, "I read it an American tennis magazine, it's suppose to confuse your opponents,'' he clarified.

"You can read English?" Momo-senpai questioned, as far as he knew, English was Sato's worst subject.

"No," Sato said wounded. "I tried google translate and it came out weird. Then I tried using a dictionary," he shook his head. "I finally caved and asked Echizen to translate it for me. I owe him two weeks of Ponta now." He winced. "Do you realize how much Ponta he drinks in a day?"

* * *

Sato arched his brow and whistled. A, Atobe had way too much time on his hands to coordinate that or B, he was that much respected inside the club. It was probably, unfortunately, both.

It would Mitsu-nii versus Keigo Atobe, a chill ran down Sato's spine as they shook hands. Everyone who was anyone came to see the match, knowing that it was one of the biggest matches of the tournament. It would be a sight to see who the winner would be. Could Mitsu-nii close it out and send Seigaku to the second round of the Kanto tennis tournament or was Atobe good enough to send it to a draw, relying on the substitutes to win?

Sato was excited to see what would happen because anything could happen. It was the first time that they had ever faced each other as Atobe claimed 'Mitsu-nii was intentionally avoiding him'.

The first game was tight, neither side willing to back off, so much that Mitsu-nii had already unleashed his trump card, _Tezuka Zone_. He looked down when Atobe accused Mitsu-nii's arm of being damaged and closed his eyes as Oishi relayed the tale of how Mitsu-nii had his elbow hurt by one of his third year senpai.

The scary thing about it was that Mitsu-nii continued playing on it until the pain was too much to bear and how he would have kept it a secret if Sato hadn't told his grandmother about Mitsu-nii was lying on the ground. They didn't talk for a month after that.

Mostly because Sato felt guilty about tattling to his grandmother when Mitsu-nii hadn't wanted him too. After a month of avoiding him, he finally awoke to Mitsu-nii standing in front of his window, wearing his infamous poker face. When he rushed outside to speak to him, Sato just started sobbing, wiping away thick tears as he faced his surrogate brother, the one who spent all of his time he could teaching Sato the sport he loved.

Mitsu-nii took a few steps and embraced his pupil, hugging him warmly. They stood there, just standing silently for a few seconds. "How bad is it?" Sato asked his voice was muffled.

"My elbow is broken and my arm is damaged." Mitsu-nii replied tersely.

"How bad is it?" Sato asked again, persisting. He knew it wasn't the entire story.

"I have to go to the doctor for checkups," Mitsu-nii answered.

"And...?"

"I can't play tennis."

This broke his heart. Mitsu-nii loved tennis more than anything and the fact he wasn't able to play it; Sato felt awful telling his grandmother but the only good thing about it was that Mitsu-nii could be healed.

* * *

Omake:

"So, Sato-kun, what do you think?" His best friend dragged him to her house, asking his opinion on an outfit.

"I don't know, why are you asking me about this anyways?" Sato asked, lying on her bed. He may have been gay but it didn't mean he had a fashion sense. He glanced up.

"No." He said flatly.

"You don't think Ryoma-sama will like it?" Tomoka asked, pouting. She twirled in her skirt. It only made it worse.

"No, I think you're never going out in that thing and Ryoma-sama...?" Sato said disbelievingly.

"Well, he is so cool and cute and awesome!" Tomoka chirped hyperactively, smiling broadly.

"I don't understand you." Sato answered, crossing his legs.

"So what's wrong with the outfit?" Tomok questioned.

"So many things, your midriff is showing and reach out and place your hand on your thighs." Sato ordered. One of the qualifications of fashion set by his female cousins, unless it was a uniform, clothes should at least reach longer than the fingertips.

"...?"

"And that confirms it," Sato replied, noting that the skirt didn't end anywhere near her fingers. "You are never going to wear that outside."

* * *

**Comments:**

Sato has a lot of cousins everywhere; he even has one at Hyotei (scholarship student).

The omake above is about Tomoka's cheerleading outfit and how we never saw the outfit. Mostly because Sato never let it see the light of day.

Fun Facts:

He and Tomoka met in the 2nd grade during a cooking class. Something exploded

To this day, his 2nd grade teacher still thinks he's a bad cook

It's kind of funny to his family because he's the one that cooks for his cousins when his aunts and uncles don't want to

He's not a super rookie like Ryoma or Kintarou, but he's definitely something different

Kikumaru has the secret nickname To-kun because when he was younger, Sato was a pretty fat baby

No, Kikumaru does not let him forget it

Sato also curses the day his grandmother decided to show his baby pictures album to her tennis club

He's absolutely terrified of Yukimura Seiichi and Sanada Genichirou

Mostly because Yukimura's tennis style freaks him out and so does Sanada's slapping of his players

His parents died of a car accident

He was a different child before and after the accident


	5. Chapter 5

Screw what Kazuhiro said about Atobe. He was a bastard! Intentionally destroying Mitsu-nii's shoulder over pride, Sato couldn't stand it. Mitsu-nii had been so excited about leading the team to victory with his arm fully healed and now, Atobe wanted to take that away from him.

And the problem was, Mitsu-nii would let him, let him destroy his arm. His pride as a leader refused to let Atobe win by a forfeit and let Echizen win for the team instead. He would sacrifice his shoulder for any chance of victory.

He would sacrifice his tennis career for his team, like a true captain and leader. But did he think about the repercussions? Did he think about the gap he would leave in the team? Sato figured no. All Mitsu-nii saw the necessities for victory for the club and nothing else. Mitsu-nii had tunnel vision like that.

How could anyone let this happen, this atrocity take place? But then again, Sato was letting it happen because he knew that his 'brother' would never forgive him for interfering once more.

He was backed into a corner with no way to help.

His captain screamed, clutching his shoulder. With a feeling of déjà vu, Sato reached for the fence, ready to leap over it, to help his captain.

"Don't come!" Mitsu-nii barked, getting up, still grasping at his shoulder and reaching for his racket. "Go back! The match is not over yet!"

They took a medical time out with the referee and Oishi-senpai in the court. Sato was clutching his ears, trying to drown the words out. "...forfeits...then?" He looked down. At least the others were thinking about making Mitsu-nii forfeit. But Sato knew that the decision lay with Mitsu-nii and he would never let that happen. He looked up again and Mitsu-nii was on the court.

He watched the scene breathless, as he leaned on the fence, hoping that the worst would not happen.

* * *

Mitsu-nii lost the match in the tiebreaker but that wasn't what Sato dreaded. It would be the doctors' prognosis on his shoulder. He reached out but took his hand back. Mitsu-nii wouldn't want to miss the deciding match between Hiyoshi Wakashi and Echizen.

There wasn't much too much data on Hiyoshi, mostly because he was usually a substitute and rarely played. But Sato had faith in Echizen, his pride and determination would lead Seigaku to victory because if he didn't, Sato was going to retract the Ponta promise. He didn't care what Echizen would do to Sato; he deserved it if he lost the match.

Echizen won the match 6-4, playing far better than Sato could have ever imagined him. They won the right to move up in the Kanto tournament.

Sato reached Mitsu-nii, reaching out for his elbow. "Mitsu-nii, I'm taking you to see my cousin, we need to see how bad it is." Sato murmured softly and Mitsu-nii nodded.

They left amid the cries of Hyotei from their ridiculously large club. "I can't believe you, Tezuka." Sato remarked, glancing at the sky. "What are you going to do now? What are we going to do now?"

Mitsu-nii remained unresponsive.

"I just hope my cousin has good news for you." His cousin did, the shoulder was healable but Mitsu-nii would have to go to a clinic that wasn't even offered in Tokyo. He would have to go Kyushu.

The animosity between them was as stifling like the time they weren't speaking. But this time, Sato refused to feel guilty for it.

* * *

The regulars and his grandmother went for an outing; according to his grandmother, they were going bowling. He was invited to come but like the invitation to play in the Intraschool tournament, he declined it. Sato didn't want to see Mitsu-nii. Not for a long time.

He knew he was acting childish and bitter but Mitsu-nii didn't need to risk it all for his team. They all knew how strong he was; yet he did risk it all. He rolled off his bed and headed to his piano, situated next to his bed, a grand piano manufactured by Yamaha.

He cracked his fingers and began playing Brahm's Rhapsody in B Minor, a piece his teacher assigned him to perfect in a week's time when he had to play in front of a crowd of two thousand. Sato already had the basics down; he just needed to add his own personal touches to the music, to make the song his own.

Brahms was well known composer but whose works were rarely known by name, rather they were recognized by their sounds. The rhapsody didn't look too difficult on paper but when it came to performance, the melody was very different. So many different feelings and sounds that took control to make sure the changes were noticeable.

It was an interesting piece because it could change emotion on a drop of the dime.

* * *

Sato was practicing his serve. Toss the ball high, to the right and in front, make sure the arm extends and smash. All of the seniors went to the airport to see Tezuka off with his grandmother.

He sent all four cones flying with well-placed serves, barely glancing up before serving.

"Fight Seigaku!" Sato had smile at that, despite their captain's absence, the members of Seigaku's tennis club were still enthusiastic. He did four more serves, slamming the backhand corner. He used his shirt to wipe the sweat.

He was interested in seeing how Oishi-fukubuchou would run his club. He was currently feeding balls to the other regulars, seeing how he was injured. Of course, while he was doing that, he was also imitating his grandmother. That meant barking out commands and instructions to the players.

"Alright... Regular members gather up! And Sato as well!" Oishi-fukubuchou ordered, holding a stack of papers. He held up a crudely drawn picture. "Now then..."

"What kind of crappy drawing is that?" Echizen interrupted. Sato had to agree with the other first year, it was quite bad.

"Quiet!" Oishi-fukubuchou shouted. "Now then, we shall be tested on what kind of personality type you have! Now take a look at this drawing."

"It's ugly," Echizen remarked, his eyes covered with his hat.

"...I would like everyone to tell me what they think is going on in the picture."

Sato cocked his head, blanking out. He didn't hear the others thoughts about the picture.

"Sato-kun? What do you think about it?" Oishi fukubuchou prodded.

"I'm wondering why I am doing this," Sato replied, his head still tilted. "I'm not a regular," he shifted his gaze to Oishi-fukubuchou. "So why am I doing this?"

"You're back-up," Eiji-senpai chirped, slinging a hand over the first years shoulder.

"Great," Sato drawled. "This involves me how?"

"Let's just go on," Oishi-fukubuchou ordered.

* * *

So many pictures and the art style didn't get any better either. It must have took Oishi-fukubuchou a while to draw all of them. Sato figured that Oishi-fukubuchou must not have taken too much time on them because they were so bad.

Nevermind, they were using the same exact line up they used against Hyotei except with Fuji-senpai in Singles 1 and Echizen in Singles 2. Well, as long as Sato didn't play before he upped his level, he had no problems with Oishi-fukubuchou's strategies.

They easily won against Moriyama despite the claims that they played like adults. Their strategies were certainly mature like, not trying for a game they couldn't win. Sato didn't like it but he could respect it.

* * *

Their next match would be against Rokkaku in the semifinals with the other two teams on the other side of the draw being Fudomine, who beat Yamabuki in four sets, and the champions, RikkaiDai.

Rokkaku was a solid team with a coach older than Sato's grandmother, but he was just as good. It would be the two aggressive baseliners of the team, Momoshirou Takeshi and Kawamura Takashi to take on Rokkaku's Doubles 2, the players that had the really long rackets.

He wanted to choke Momo-senpai and Kawamura-senpai. They hadn't really needed to be down 5-0 to make their comeback and win with a tiebreaker. It only proved that they were reckless idiots who could have lost and only won because of well placed psychological warfare.

Next would be Doubles 1 with Eiji-senpai and Fuji-senpai at the front. And Sato was kind of getting irritated with the elementary school brats who thought they were big shots because they could hit a ball and took training from someone who had taught his own grandmother.

Even though they were down 3-1, Sato was sure Eiji-senpai that didn't even know the concept of surrender or giving up. His senpai had something up his sleeve and Sato knew it.

* * *

Eiji-senpai proved Sato right again, with his new move, named after himself, _Kikumaru Step_. It was creepy but kind of cool. There now two Eiji-senpai's on the court, due to fast movement, helping Fuji-senpai out with his 2 on 1 situation. Eiji-senpai had a new trump card that would propel Seigaku to victory, ending with the score 6-3.

Next it was Kaidoh-senpai versus the wonder first year captain of Rokkaku, a player that Sato had heard was bit more weird than usual, if that was possible He never played a lopsided match; he didn't have any scores that were 6-0, 6-1 and the like. It was usually a very tight score. He wondered how Kaidoh-senpai would play against such a player.

It was getting pretty annoying on how Kentarou kept on hitting those net balls, even the fastest player, someone like Kamio, would struggle to get for them. Eventually, Kaidoh-senpai did get one while managing to land on his face. His bandana flew off when he did. The regulars liked getting injured, didn't they.

The small scrape on his forehead seemingly produced a lot of blood for such a small wound, why did all blood wounds always seem to be so dramatic? Especially Echizen.

His grandmother shouted for Kaidoh-senpai to have his wound cleaned, so the possibility of infection would be lower. Kaidoh-senpai ignored her, wrapping his bandana around his head instead, making the wound look even worse with all that blood, bleeding onto the wound. Sato gagged internally. "I'm fine like this."

"Are you alright?" Kentarou asked once more, at least the hyperactive ball of wonder was concerned about his opponent's welfare.

"You play tennis with a firm resolve. I admire that." And here was Kaidoh-senpai being a badass. What else was new?

Kaidoh-senpai wasn't the type to be broken mentally; every little hurdle was something to be shattered, destroyed. He would win the set 7-5.

* * *

Two days before the heavily stressful final of the Kanto tournament, Sato's class had P.E. in the pool. Of all the members of the tennis club in his class, he was the only one who brought his goggles. Since Horio, Kato and Katsuo all forgot their swim goggles, the chlorine left them frighteningly bright red eyes.

Actually, the entire team of Regulars had bright red eyes for reasons that Sato didn't really want to know. It also made a funny moment, kind of. With the regulars going towards the clubroom, Echizen suddenly fainted. And apparently, Sato heard, when Echizen woke up again, Horio, Kato and Katsuo were surrounding him and he fainted, again.

Sato had to stifle a laugh at that.

The day was going pretty well, the Golden Pair was back with Oishi-senpai's wrist fully healed and everyone was excited for the final.

"Echizen!" Sato glanced from his serving practice and saw that Echizen had fainted again while near his grandmother... who also had red eyes because she had stayed up late from grading school papers and arranging the team order. There was a pattern.

Echizen's prone body was placed on a bench and Sato was told to watch over him. Sato pulled out his music folder and sat next to the other first year. He tapped his fingers on the bench, mimicking the rhythm of Brahms Rhapsody in B minor. After ten minutes of doing that, Echizen finally woke up.

Echizen blinked, his cat-like eyes all blurry from having fainted three times in the course of one afternoon.

"You alright, Echizen?" Sato asked. "You had all of us worried."

"I'm fine." Now that Sato thought about it, this was first real conversation they had, the first being where Sato gave the correct directions to his tournament. He grabbed a grape-flavored Ponta from his bag and handed it to Echizen. "This is the last day I owe you Ponta, might as well celebrate it." Sato informed coolly.

"So what's with your phobia with red eyes?" Sato asked, "And your knee, what's with the bandage? You trip on something?"

"It's nothing." Echizen replied quickly, avoiding Sato's brown eyes. He opened the cap to the flavored and favored sports drink.

"Okay," Sato said lightly. "I'll go tell the others you're up now. Hope you feel better, Echizen."

* * *

**Comments:**

Sato doesn't have a crush on Echizen, he has feelings of admiration but he doesn't actually show it because he's tsundere. Not really though. He knows that Echizen's not going to react or think about it because he is tennis obsessed.

Fun Facts:

Sato didn't say good bye to his captain

He doesn't feel bad about it and won't ever.

Since he knows Tezuka will come back, he always does

He's one of the best teenage piano players in Japan

No one really knows though, except for his family because they go to all of his concerts and do really embarrassing things backstage

Sato's had to kick them out once or twice

Both times were voluntary

He likes playing the piano because he can express his emotions through it

His life is a lot more simple than people think

Most of his stress comes from tennis

He's the one that usually scouts the information for Inui because Inui prefers watching the regulars of the club

He doesn't mind, he does it for the greater good of the team

Atobe really admires his cousin

Sato doesn't know why he does because his cousin is weird

Than again, so is Atobe

He knows Tezuka's intended protege is Echizen and how the next pillar of Seigaku will be Echizen because he wouldn't be expecting anything different

Yamato-buchou was his grandmother's favorite captain

Don't tell Nanjirou


	6. Chapter 6

Inhale. Exhale. Ryuzaki Sato was dressed in a black tuxedo with a dark blue vest as he stared behind the curtain from an angle at the crowd of 1967, according to the venue owner. Sato thought it was bit small for nearly two thousand. He had faced far bigger crowds and somewhere in said crowd were his instructors from the Institute and his extended family.

"We are pleased to announce the main attraction of the night, Ryuzaki Sato from the Tokyo Institute of Music!" The crowd roared with applause as Sato made his way to the piano, this time it was a Petrof Grand piano, which was headquartered in the Czech Republic, smiling tentatively.

He had forty-five minutes allotted to him and he was going to make sure that the crowd enjoyed every single minute of his performance. He wanted them too.

* * *

Sato had to stifle a laugh. Oishi-fukubuchou sure had gotten some balls when Mitsu-nii was gone. Challenging such a grim vice-captain like Sanada took some guts, especially since they all looked like they wanted to murder Echizen.

Echizen must have done something stupid when he went out to get his rackets restrung.

* * *

Ryuzaki Sato didn't feel too good about this, not at all. Marui and Jackal were good. Beyond good, really, their teamwork was much better than anyone's in the tournament, except for the Golden Pair and their Doubles One. Their roles were concrete, never changing. One was to attack and the other was to defend.

Marui's control and technique left Seigaku scrambling for balls and Jackal had stamina like Kaidoh-senpai, as in never-ending.

Doubles 2 didn't work like that, they were naturally aggressive with little to no understanding of defensive tactics. They were doomed.

Kaidoh-senpai was shaken by Jackal's easy return of the Boomerang Snake with one of his own, except it was stronger and faster. He was so shaken by it because he had worked so hard on it. All that time spent in the river would have made Kaidoh-senpai sick if Sato hadn't supplied Kaidoh-senpai with medicine.

He hoped Momo-senpai could pump or aggravate Kaidoh-senpai back into the match because Momo-senpai for all his determination could not do it alone. Because once he did, Kaidoh-senpai had other tricks up his sleeve that would help.

Which, he did eventually. Although Momo-senpai was straight, "I'm going to pull you through this, so just wait for me!" reeked of fruity undertones. No offense to Momo-senpai or anything, but really. And that diving volley wasn't too smart either because it left his knee all banged up and so was leaving it untreated could have led to an infection and even more trouble.

At least Seigaku was back into the match with Kaidoh-senpai's use of his short snake and challenge against the 'Man with Four Lungs', Kuwahara Jackal. It was a challenge to be proud of because doing something like that was considered suicide. Of course, not doing anything was committing suicide as well. Because that would mean giving up and no one at Seigaku ever gave up.

They eventually lost that match 6-1 because of the surprising play Marui pulled off. It still was good match because in the end, Seigaku got their Doubles 2 to take them seriously, evident by the removal of weighted wristbands. At least, Seigaku was being regarded as a challenge.

* * *

Next would be Doubles 1 against a doubles team that even Inui-senpai didn't have data on. That frightened Sato, what kind of players would they be and what would they do? It chilled Sato down to the bone, how would the Golden Pair deal with this?

Probably through trust and teamwork could they win because they knew each other like the back of their hands.

Sato narrowed his eyes at Niou's complete ignoration of his vice-captain's orders. He knew that Sanada wasn't actually the real captain, Yukimura Seiichi had that honor, but he was just as good as. Still ignoring a superior's orders was dangerous, how good was Niou to be allowed to do that? Or was that just his usual behavior?

Sato was willing to bet it was the latter. How odd was it that Rikkai Dai had _the Con of the Courts_ and reputed _the Gentleman _playing on the same team? Sato would have figured that the two would have professional difficulties on playing on the same team together.

When Eiji-senpai got Oishi-fukubuchou's attention, he also grabbed Sato's attention as well. It was really heartwarming to see the pregnant woman (well, not anymore) come to their match with her husband to see their match. Sato knew that the Golden Pair wouldn't lose the match now.

The match began with Oishi-fukubuchou's serve, with Yagyuu, the Gentleman, returning it. As the rally lengthened, it became clear that it would not be an easy match. Niou was blocking Eiji-senpai's vision, forcing him to use _Kikumaru Step_.

The second Eiji-senpai paused; he was immediately slammed with a shot to his eye and head from a shot from Rikkai Dai. Sato blinked in shock. The very first point and it seemed very likely that Doubles 1 would have to forfeit due to a medical injury. Eiji-senpai had a minor concussion and appeared to be in shock. Sato kept his distance because he knew his presence would only cause a distraction for the medical personnel.

He wasn't sure whether or not it was intentional, even if Oishi-fukubuchou thought it was.

Sato recollected fondly on how the Golden Pair came to be. Oishi-fukubuchou had just been chosen as a Regular practice partner, as in during practice, Oishi would hit with the Regulars while Eiji-senpai was the flashy first year that liked jumping around like the general hyperactive maniac he was. And Oishi would beat Eiji every single time and be turned down as his doubles partner every single time.

Sato thought it was hilarious when a week later after Eiji's latest defeat, they came into his grandmother's office, demanding to become double partners. And the rest they say is history.

Lost in his thoughts, Sato was awakened by the gasps and cries and he immediately turned to the source of excitement. It was Eiji-senpai as usual, despite the fact he was going to be taken to the hospital; Eiji-senpai had woken up before they could take him away.

Afterwards, they easily won Oishi-fukubuchou's service game and then it was Yagyuu's turn to serve, which Oishi-fukubuchou easily returned and the tide was easily in the Golden Pair's favor.

Until Yagyuu unleashed his trump card 'Laser Beam', with that the favor was in Rikkai Dai's and the Golden Pair was neutralized. The game score became 2-1 until Sato realized what the Golden Pair was doing.

How crafty of Oishi-fukubuchou to play like that, he made Yagyuu play longer rallies, forcing his to use his Laser Beam even more until Eiji-senpai was able to react to it.

Which he did, eventually after he lost his service game, they struck back quickly, breaking Niou's service game and equalizing the score to 2-2.

Now it was Oishi-fukubuchou's service game again and the Golden Pair should their trump card, _Australian Formation_. Everyone was excited by the possibility of the Golden Pair being able to make the team score 1-1 until Niou hit his own Laser Beam.

Sato's mouth dropped in shock. What was going on? Was the _Trickster_ of the courts really the _Gentleman_ and vice versa? Before he knew it, the score became 5-2. His nails cut into the palms of his hands_, hell his teachers would be so mad at him_, his nerves were someday going to be the end of him

How were the Golden Pair going to get out of this one?

* * *

"We came here to win and only to win!" Oishi was returning, heck, Sato didn't know whose serve he was returning.

He blinked, Oishi-fukubuchou and Eiji-senpai were switching spots, not like Rikkai Dai but they were switching positions. Eiji-senpai was running to the back and Oishi-senpai was coming forward. What in the world were they planning?

Then it hit Sato, by having Oishi-fukubuchou at net, he was able to use his game-making abilities to the fullest. It was pure brilliance. The amount of trust needed for this formation was perfect for the Golden Pair.

He heard his teammates dub it _Oishi Territory_, which was fitting because it was literally his territory. He controlled nearly every single shot while Eiji-senpai hit the balls back. They were able to seal one of the two lasers with this new formation. They broke back and got the score to 5-4 when Sato was hit with another realization.

They still hadn't neutralized the original owner's Laser Beam, Yagyuu. And a few seconds later, it seemed the crowd had too.

Despite Eiji-senpai's attempt with his _Kikumaru Bazooka_, the Golden Pair lost Doubles 1 with the score 6-4, a much tighter score than Doubles 2. But still, it left Seigaku down two sets, leaving it hope that Inui-senpai would be able to win Singes 3.

But morale was low and it didn't seem like it would get any better.

* * *

Sato wasn't sure about how this would end. Of course, really, who knew what would happen in tennis? So many competing variables, the end result was never really clear.

It would be Inui-senpai against his old doubles partner, Yanagi Renji. Those two had dominated the elementary doubles scene with their scary sense of compatibility. Their styles of data tennis complimented each other and also weakened themselves because, like what Inui-senpai was doing, they could plan their moves against each other.

This type of tennis was scary because like Yanagi proved, data wasn't everything. People improved and people played tricks, which was exactly why Inui-senpai was in trouble. Yanagi was a data player and for those three games, he waited and watched Inui-senpai and gathered his data. And then he countered Inui-senpai's style of playing.

This entire debacle was terrifying. So many trump cards, so much was on the line. Like Inui-senpai abandoning his data tennis? Before this, Sato would have believed it to be inconceivable. The world just didn't work lie that.

But as it turned out, boundaries were pushed and lines were being crossed.

Inui-senpai's style of tennis after he abandoned was quite different. So much more emotion was pushed into it, his body reacted far quicker than his mind did and it was unbelievable. But as being the undisputable champions of the Kanto tournament, Yanagi was not finished yet.

He quickly made the score 5-4 with his chance to serve out the set. Something was niggling at the edge of Sato's mind. Data tennis was Inui-senpai's core. It made him number three in the school club, why did he abandon it so quickly and easily? Something wasn't right.

And Sato wasn't proven right, again. Apparently, Inui-senpai hadn't abandoned his data tennis; he was just setting the score up to the score it had been when the duo had departed. Sometimes, Sato wished, people worked with their head instead of their pride. Think of how many wars, injuries and etcetera would not have been caused if people didn't have any pride.

Of course, pride made people humans and it was a natural thing. Everyone had pride. But life would be so much easier, if they didn't.

Inui-senpai and Yanagi quickly entered a tie break, as Inui-senpai broke Yanagi's serve to make the score 5-5 and then they both held their serve making the score 6-6.

"Hang in there Inui-senpai!" The entire Seigaku turned to face the youngest Regular member as he cheered his support for the man he had beaten in the beginning of the year.

The tiebreaker was never ending as each player played their hearts out and a bit more. But Inui-senpai was able to pull it out in the end with the tiebreaker score ending with 31-29 in his favor.

But really, did Inui-senpai abandon his data tennis? Sato couldn't hear any muttering of percentages under his breath so did he really regain it? Ugh. This was the exact reason why Sato never understood Inui-senpai. Not his style of thinking, his style of playing or why he made such foul-brewing drinks that basically gave people food poisoning.

However, with Inui-senpai's win, Seigaku could breathe a bit of hope (that this was possible) as they finally got onto the scoreboard.

Because next it would be Fuji-senpai (Singles 2) against Rikkai Dai's second year ace, the _Demon_, Kirihara Akaya, another person Sato never wanted to meet on the court. It was rumored that if Kirihara was provoked, his hair would turn white and his eyes red, which reminded Sato as he sneaked a glance at Echizen. Did he play him when he went to get his rackets restrung? It certainly explained the entire situation with the red eyes and why Rikkai Dai's entire Regular lineup stared at Echizen in the beginning. _  
_

Then did that mean that Echizen's knee had been injured during his unofficial match with Kirihara? So many questions, so few answers.

* * *

**Comments:**

Mostly tennis this time but thing is with Sato I want to hammer down is that:

He's a good tennis player, not the best or a great tennis player but a good one. His strengths are his doubles play but he doesn't think it's strong enough yet and he's right in a way.

His singles isn't really worth mentioning. He can beat Arai (the best non-regular second year) with a score 6-4 or 7-5. It varies. But if you put him against Kikumaru or Oishi, he'd lose.

He some how manages good grades, a sport and a music career in his life, which is totally plausible for anyone. His drive to do well is related to his cousins. His grades and tennis are slightly above average, while his piano career is unmatched.

He doesn't have much of a social life and Tomoka laments that. He can only spend two hours or so a week with her, so most of his interaction with her is at school.

He does not have a crush on Echizen (yet). Tomoka has a crush on Echizen but Sato doesn't. So most of his time is spent trying to distract Tomoka from gushing too much about Echizen.

Fun Facts:

His favorite tennis player in the world is David Ferrer

Because the man, despite never being number one, he still gives it his all

Even if he is basically known as the other Spaniard (Nadal is the other one)

His other favorite is Japan's Kei Nishikori who is like Kamio and Kaidoh, with speed and endurance on his side

Ferrer's known for his return which Sato thinks is awesome

His favorite in the Big Four has to Federer because Federer reminds him a lot of Mitsu-nii

His favorite type of food is Kakigori (strawberry flavored)

He's not sure how Echizen doesn't have diabetes yet, seeing how much Ponta he drinks

Of course, he doesn't know too much about diabetes so he isn't the best person to ask

In the two weeks Sato paid for Echizen's Ponta, he spent over seven thousand yen (7823 to be precise)

It sucked, he was planning to buy a new pair of tennis shoes and Tomoka's birthday gift with it


	7. Chapter 7

So much drama for only three sets of tennis, Sato mused. But it was the finals of the Kanto tournament so it was pretty much a given. Now it was Singles 2 with Fuji-senpai versus Rikkai Dai's second year ace, Kirihara Akaya. Seigaku's defeat depended on whether or not Fuji-senpai was willing to play serious. It was Fuji-senpai's biggest hurdle, whether or not he could be motivated into playing a serious match.

How Fuji-senpai would be provoked into playing seriously, Sato didn't know. He didn't want to know. But Fuji-senpai would have to start strong, because, rumors were that Kirihara was trained to defeat Mitsu-nii and that alone made him very dangerous. Kirihara wanted to win and Sato wasn't sure if Fuji-senpai wanted to.

Sato wasn't surprised as much as the others when he saw that Sanada was going to slap Yanagi. What he was surprised at was Kirihara's interference; Rikkai Dai had this weird motto to never lose, so Sato figured it was fitting to punish Yanagi for breaking said motto.

So, it was also fitting that Sato got the chills, realizing that right from the get go, Kirihara was looking to outright crush Fuji-senpai when he stopped his vice-captain's slap with his racket. It would start with Kirihara's serve, and from Inui-senpai's data, Kirihara was an Aggressive Baseliner, which was interesting, as Fuji-senpai was a Counter-Puncher, or what Sato liked to call, a pusher. Not to any Counter-Puncher's face, of course because that was just asking for trouble.

If Sato ever said it to Kaidoh-senpai, who was one, he would have been hurt, badly. Sato hated playing pushers, because the thing about them, was that they were ridiculously consistent (most of them just 'pushed' the ball back) and it was difficult hitting winners against them. The best strategy Sato found against their type was serve and volley because it would force the opponent to hit a passing shot and they often would get flustered or nervous leading to a mistake.

Of course, the counterpuncher regulars of Seigaku had developed strategies for serve and volleyers. Kaidoh-senpai, with his snake shot that curved around the player; Oishi-fukubuchou, with his moon volley, which ironically wasn't a volley but a very accurate lob; finally Fuji-senpai, with his counters that had very low chances of being returned.

And that was what made Fuji-senpai one of the best within the Seigaku regulars, because Fuji-senpai could, if he wanted to, go for a winner, when they least expected it.

* * *

Sato's breathing was shallow, the smoke encompassed the entire court and no one could see what happened to Fuji-senpai.

Finally, finally, Sato saw Fuji-senpai lying on the ground and the racket was out of his hand. What had happened to Fuji-senpai? Everything went downhill after that.

Kirihara did something to Fuji-senpai but Sato wasn't sure what. It was odd, Fuji-senpai's shot weren't as good, his reactions weren't as fast and nor was his playing as excellent. Kirihara quickly caught up to make the score 4-3 but the match was clearly in his favor.

Sato closed his eyes when Kirihara announced to the entire crowd that Fuji-senpai couldn't see. It figured. When Kirihara made that overhead, he must have hit Fuji-senpai in the head, leading to an acute concussion that had the side effect of temporary blindness.

What was even more surprising was Fuji-senpai's competence after losing four straight games. Could Fuji-senpai play while being blind? Fuji-senpai was a tensai after all, and it was said, if tensai's were pushed, they could do unimaginable things.

It was a great match to watch, even if there were some violent plays going on. A match between talented players, giving it their all. The best match, Sato concluded, was between players who were closely matched because the players could both play to the extent of their abilities.

* * *

"You know, most people, well, doctors, would never allow a person who suffered a concussion to play immediately after the event. The time period to allow participation in a sport is supposed to be 24 hours after no symptoms." Sato commented conversationally, dropping onto the bench next to Fuji-senpai. They watched as Echizen and Sanada entered the court.

"Did a cousin tell you this, Sato-kun?" Fuji-senpai answered teasingly, exhausted as he was.

"No, actually." Sato smirked even though he knew Fuji-senpai couldn't exactly see. "It was an uncle who I stayed with for Golden Week about two years ago. He's an athletic trainer for the University of Tokyo, the one located in Hongo, actually. You got lucky, Fuji-senpai." He added grimly.

"Don't tell the others," Fuji-senpai answered, smiling conspiratorially.

"Wouldn't dream of it." Sato replied automatically. Holding something like possible blackmail over Fuji-senpai wasn't smart. Even for Sato, growing up with unrelenting pranksters, whose words like revenge and payback were commonplace and had no boundaries messing with Fuji-senpai was a death wish. For the Ryuzakis' pranks and teasing were minute and amicable, not meant to cause harm. For someone like Fuji-senpai, you would be hurt and badly. "Ne, Fuji-senpai, why did we put a first year rookie against one of the strongest junior high players?"

"Tezuka thought that Ryoma-kun could take on Sanada." Fuji-senpai answered as if it answered everything. It did, actually. Mitsu-nii's influence was strong enough to reach from Kyushu.

* * *

Sato wondered how Echizen would take this new challenge. Sanada was a solid player; he was an all-rounder with the desire to defeat Mitsu-nii. Although, Sato had not witnessed it himself, rather he heard it from eyewitness accounts, when they were in primary school, Mitsu-nii had beaten Sanada 6-1, 6-0 after Sanada came in second in a junior tennis tournament.

Now Sato wasn't sure if Sanada had been tired after playing the winner of the tournament, but it left Sanada with a vendetta to beat Mitsu-nii. As a solid player, Sanada also had his techniques 'FuRinKaZan' and that was a line of attack Sanada favored. Sato figured his most dangerous one was 'Fu' one. Who could react to a shot when they never saw it?

Sanada Genichirou was known as the 'Emperor' because of his willingness to attack and face his opponents' head on. Sato figured that the strategy was how he was planning to beat Echizen. It rarely varied because Sanada was an extremely talented tennis player who never went easy on an opponent.

Yet, again, Echizen had his own trump card, 'The State of Self Actualization', it was a powerful technique in which Echizen could recall any move he saw. But would all the techniques he ever witnessed be enough against the Emperor of the Rikkai?

* * *

Sanada Genichirou was probably one of the best players in Junior High tennis. His only real competitor in the Kanto region would Keigo Atobe. There were really only five people who had the chance to be the best in the Junior High tennis scene in Japan. Currently, two of them were injured; Yukimura Seiichi, captain of Rikkai Dai and Tezuka Kunimitsu, captain of Seigaku. Sato had never seen the fifth player but he heard his playing style was godlike.

Oddly, this would be Echizen's first official match against any of the Elites. Sanada would be Echizen's first hurdle on the road of being the best in Japan.

Sato didn't want to touch that issue with a stick. It was like a beehive, docile and quiet but if irritated, ready to strike. It would be answered by the end of the match.

Echizen quickly exhausted all of his techniques in order to win the first two games, where he utilized Fuji Yuuta's Twist Spin Shot, Akutsu's special movement and Momo-senpai's very own Dunk Smash. But even through all this showmanship, Sato knew it was still too early to be excited. Because Sanada hadn't released 'that'.

It shocked everyone, including Echizen, when the ball suddenly got past him. It was Sanada's Fuu, 'swift like the wind'.

But Echizen was nothing but adaptable. Through another flurry of copied techniques, which also included Sanada's Fuu, Echizen quickly captured the game. Again, but through all of the excitement, the crowd and Echizen forgot that Sanada still had three more of his styles to go through.

Also, all trump cards had a weakness, and for the 'State of Self Actualization' it would be stamina, which allowed Echizen to fall behind 2-1 to the Emperor of Rikkai Dai. And it continued, Sanada unleashed his second, Ka, 'invade like the fire', against Echizen, which was odd. Sanada, rarely, according to data, used more than one technique against his opponent. The score quickly became 5-1, with Echizen fighting his hardest against the resolve and pride of champions.

Sanada was out to crush Echizen, to remove all hope from Seigaku. The team had fought so hard to recover from the two doubles losses from earlier in the day.

He wasn't sure how Echizen summoned the energy but he soon caught up to Sanada despite not using 'the State of Self-Actualization' and the score was 5-5. Although Sato was no data player, he had watched all of Echizen's matches. He had a weakness, Echizen, Sato concluded. One that Sanada probably had already figured out. He was incredibly unprepared after hitting a shot because he gave his all to win the point. All Sanada had to do was return Echizen's finishing shot because it would go straight through him.

But again, Echizen was nothing but adaptable and he proved it, unleashing his newest technique, Cool Drive.

Sato didn't remember too much after that. All he knows that there was a ton of screaming and yelling and someone being tossed in the air. It was probably Echizen because it had to be someone small (which Echizen was) and Echizen did just win the Kanto tournament, beating Rikkai Dai.

* * *

The very next week, they were invited to Rokkaku's summer training camp at the beach. Well, the regulars were; Sato decided to decline because his grandmother was looking for her bathing suit and there were many things, Sato figured, that did not need to be seen. He had his own practice to attend to as well.

Sato slipped through the door, carrying a simple folder. He was at the Tokyo Institute of Music where he had taken lessons at for nearly four years. He had gone through more teachers than he could count and was still, according to his teacher's words, 'improving at an advance rate'.

After the concert went extremely well, or so he was told; Sato had the unfortunate habit of zoning out when he was playing in a concert, his teachers had another piano piece for him. This time it was an old classic by Beethoven, Fur Elise. It was for an elementary school so they had to choose a piece that was recognizable.

Sato wasn't sure what they were trying to prove by having a 1st floor player go to an elementary school and play such a simple song but he figured it had to do with the fact that Sato could have easily passed for an elementary student.

* * *

Sato was nearly finished with all of his classroom duties when he heard Tomo-chan shouting. Sighing, he put away the trash bin and headed towards her voice. "Tomo-chan, why are you being so loud? You're disrupting the other classes."

"There's some weird girl hanging around Ryoma-sama!" Tomo-chan roared. "He carried her to the infirmary!" She fumed jealously.

Sato blinked. "Is that what you're upset about Tomo-chan? A girl near Echizen?" He loved Tomo-chan, he really did but she got upset over the stupidest things. "What is your point?"

"She shouldn't be near him!" Tomo-chan protested, rattling Sato's eardrums. "She's hanging on him, watching him play. Ryoma-sama's getting distracted because of her!" She started pulling Sato by the arm. "We have to get rid of her!"

The pieces finally clicked for Sato and he grounded his feet. "First, off, we are not going to 'get rid of her' and second, you're overreacting. The girl is probably a spy for another school."

Tomo-chan paused and stared at Sato. "….."

"Look, Seigaku just beat Rikkai Dai in the Kanto tournament, while some people will write it off as luck because their captain is missing, others won't. They probably heard about Echizen, the wonder first year rookie, who beat one of the strongest Junior High players. Now tell me, wouldn't you want data on him too?" Sato explained. His cousins had a lot of fun telling Sato stories about how they got rid of pesky spies at their school; one of them included a BB gun and a lot of confusion.

"Oh," Tomo-chan nodded, as the things began to make sense.

"Plus, we've seen Echizen play, he rarely, if ever, makes mistakes in practice. 100 yen says that he was screwing up on purpose in order to give false data to the teams." Sato paused, thoughts whirling around his head. "He's smart like that, Echizen."

* * *

After that little drama fest was over, Sato completed his classroom duties and headed for the tennis courts for practice. There were a lot of people in the bushes, spying on the club. It was a bit creepy in Sato's opinion but people did what they wanted.

Which was exactly why Sato had to stifle a few chuckles when he saw Fuji-senpai spray water all over them; it was malicious and so Fuji-senpai.

When practice ended, Sato had to jog a few steps to catch up to Echizen. "Backhand volley's a little off, isn't it, Echizen?" During practice, when his grandmother fed Echizen a couple high backhand volleys, he completely flubbed them. As in, not Echizen like.

Echizen's feline like eyes flickered at the other first year and smirked. "So Ryuzaki caught that?" He said it like he wasn't expecting Sato to catch on so quickly.

"So you knew?" Sato replied, slightly accusing. "What was the point of feeding them false data if you're just going to crush them anyways?" He paused, as he began to answer his own question. "Serves them right." Sato concluded.

"See you later, Echizen." Sato shook his head as he went back to wait for his grandmother.

* * *

**Comments:**

I was planning for Sato to have this big scene where he ejects the girl off the Seigaku campus but realized, first, that is way too cool for him to do, and second, he would never do that.

We begin to see the basis of Sato's crush forming on Echizen. He begins to realize, despite how arrogant Echizen is, he's reliable and smart. He might talk big but he can handle it, really.

I copied from Anna Nigma but she or he hasn't posted in two years, so I figured it was alright. I don't know. If she or he tells me it's not okay, I'll fix it but I don't know.

Fun Facts:

He likes messing with people

It gets really entertaining for him to see people fume in anger because he's weird like that

It's been bred in him

Actually, his aunts and uncles aren't like that but his cousins are, big time

Oddly enough, he's the most normal out of them

Hard to believe, I know

His favorite person on the Regulars is Tezuka

But not right now, because Sato full on resents him for sacrificing the possibility of his tennis career

No, he doesn't care that Tezuka would have lost face if he had given up

Okay, he does care because if anyone insulted Tezuka, you can bet that Sato would have been in their face for it


	8. Chapter 8

The day that Mitsu-nii returned to Seigaku, Sato heard about him rather than saw him. And that didn't bother him one bit. He didn't care that Mitsu-nii came back to Seigaku, he didn't need him but the team did.

It was odd really; Mitsu-nii did not display his emotions as easily as, say Eiji-senpai. To read Mitsu-nii, one had to be adept at interpreting body language, and even then, reading Mitsu-nii was hard.

But it wasn't impossible.

All his female classmates were tittering about Mitsu-nii's return, as he was the top student of the school and captain of the tennis club and he was also considered to be very handsome. He left a hole in Seigaku but he was back.

As a general rule, the third years were on a different classroom level than their kohais' and the first and second years were forbidden to go on that level. However, certain individuals were allowed. Sato was one of those certain individuals, as his grandmother taught third year math and he often had to talk to her, so he had permission to go to the higher level. And everyone knew it.

This was exactly why Sato had a headache. It was lunch and with girls pleading with him, when he was trying to eat his bento in peace surrounded his desk. He was failing.

* * *

Nationals were on the horizon. The event was taking place in Tokyo and the tournament was giving a spot to a school in Tokyo that was in the Kanto tournament. Sato didn't have a good feeling about this.

He was practicing his serve again. He had been watching videos of a kick serve and was now trying to replicate it on the court. It was like the Twist serve but instead of curving towards the body and the head; it spun out towards the fence. The toss had been giving him trouble because he was so used to having his serve out in front of him and it was hard pinpointing exactly behind his head. But what was life without its challenges?

He glanced over at the crowd that was excited over the return of Mitsu-nii. He didn't blame them; their captain was back and ready to lead them to Nationals. But one problem that Sato figured they hadn't thought about was that someone had to be kicked off the Regulars. Momo-senpai had taken Oishi-fukubuchou's position and when Mitsu-nii had left, Oishi-fukubuchou had taken his. So who was to lose their position?

He looked over again after hitting ten kick serves. Or at least, he attempted to hit them. It wasn't working out too well. He was surprised but not shocked at what he saw. Oishi-fukubuchou was playing Mitsu-nii on the court. Sato wondered if this was another of Oishi-fukubuchou's plots, like the one with the terrible drawings.

He had his suspicions but Sato couldn't be too sure. One of his uncles had connections at Tokyo Hospital (he lived in Shinjuku) and he said that the doctor for Oishi-fukubuchou said that he was recuperating nicely from his wrist injury but he was not yet fully healed.

Afterwards, when he picked up the balls from his serving practice, he overheard Eiji-senpai and Oishi-fukubuchou fighting. Well, more like Eiji-senpai shaking Oishi-fukubuchou and shaking him. Ah, Sato understood now. Oishi-fukubuchou must have felt that he wasn't healed enough for Nationals so he challenged Mitsu-nii instead of rolling over and giving Mitsu-nii control over the club. Sato felt bad for Oishi-fukubuchou but Mitsu-nii probably would have beaten Oishi-fukubuchou 6-0, fully healed or not healed.

Life was cruel like that.

* * *

Sato had to skip the opening ceremony but he was still planning to go watch the first round match of Rokkaku vs. Higa Chuu. Seigaku had a bye the first round because they were in the finals of the regional (Kanto) tournament. Seigaku would have to play the winners of the matchup and …

He arrived at a terrible and frightening scene. Rokkaku's coach had been hit by a ball, which Sato suspected was intentionally aimed. Rokkaku didn't have a chance of winning so Seigaku had to play Higa Chuu next. He felt bad for their coach but his grandmother was going to be on that same bench.

His throat clenched and his palms became sweaty. His pupils dilated and his breathing became shallow. Sato didn't like this feeling. It gave him the chills.

The next three hours went by like a flash and now it was time for the second round match of Seigaku vs. Higa Chuu.

Echizen was Singles 3, playing against an opponent that was at least three times his size. Sato had to keep from laughing when Echizen coolly insulted his opponent but still, he could feel the tension in his bones. Higa Chuu was not a school to take lightly.

That 'Big Bang' serve was rather nifty. It seemed that Higa Chuu tossed the ball low and in front of him to him to basically jump into the court, using his hefty body weight to supply all the power. Contrary to popular belief, the swing was not what made a shot fast, it was the weight transfer. How one shifted his weight would depend on the amount of power they had. But what struck Sato as odd was how much effort Higa Chuu put into his serve. For most, Sato assumed, it was hard putting in a hundred percent on the first serve. That's why the second serve was invented.

The game continued to a tiebreaker and Sato was getting irked at how big their opponents were talking. Higa Chuu was talking trash for someone who didn't even have a chance at winning Echizen's serve. So what, Echizen didn't really have much of a chance winning his opponent's serve but still, there was something eerie at how quiet Echizen was.

"Ne, Eiji-senpai, just how fast is his 'Big Bang'?" Sato asked the more exuberant half of the Golden Pair. Eiji-senpai probably had the best eyes on the team, not missing much. It helped him with his acrobatic tennis.

"To-kun?" Eiji-senpai glanced back at the tiebreaker. "It's pretty fast and hard too."

"Oh, in your opinion, do you think it's slowed down at all?" Sato questioned curiously. Sato had his suspicions but he wanted them to be confirmed before reaching a conclusion.

"Not really, if Ochibi can't return it, it has to be hard doesn't it?" Eiji-senpai replied. Ha! Sato was right; it was just like with that girl-manager-spy person. He was faking.

Echizen, as always, ended the match with a bang of his own. He revealed the finished version of 'Cool Drive' pegging Higa Chuu in the face. Some sort of revenge for Rokkaku's coach, Sato supposed.

* * *

Next was Doubles 2, going back to an old combo that hadn't been used in a while. Kawamura-senpai and Fuji-senpai were working as a team again.

Kawamura-senpai was serving first and it was, as usual, a hard one. Perhaps Sato should start weight training. The next ball was at Fuji-senpai who was at the net and he floated the body shot up, turning it into a possible overhead.

The sinking gut feeling returned again and Sato was scared for his grandmother.

"Obaa-chan!" The ball was getting closer and closer but a racket suddenly stopped the ball from getting closer to his grandmother. Kawamura-senpai's racket. Sato felt sick to his stomach and ran towards the bathroom before he threw up in front of everybody.

He stumbled into the bathroom blearily and emptied his stomach in the nearest toilet. His eyes began to tear up due to the acidity of vomit and he gagged. He continued to kneel at the toilet and ignored the opening of the door.

"Sato?" Momo-senpai called out. "Are you okay? You left kind of quickly." It was just like Momo-senpai to check up on a sick kohai. He also wasn't playing today.

"I'm fine," Sato answered, wiping his mouth. He flushed the toilet and rinsed out his mouth with the water from a sink. "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, everything's fine. Oishi-senpai wanted me to check up on you." Momo-senpai scratched his head awkwardly. "I could ask the same."

"I'm fine, it's just that Higa chuu..." Sato drifted off, staring at the tile pattern of the bathroom.

"I know right, it's disgusting." Momo-senpai nodded and they left the bathroom. "Talk to me about it."

"How can a human being justify aiming at a spectator? I know obaa-chan is the enemy's coach but it's hard for me to understand how people can be so cruel during a high school tennis match." Sato answered, scuffing his shoes.

"It bothers me that they would take such actions. I guess They really want to win but there is taking something's too far."

* * *

Sato didn't remember too much about his parents. Or he didn't really want to; his obaa-chan was his mother now and he couldn't change the past. She was an awesome mother but that was mostly from experience. Having six kids, fifteen grandchildren did that to a grandmother.

He began learning piano when his parents were still alive and he was considering quitting it but his grandmother insisted that he continue, so he did. As a result because his grandmother was the tennis coach for Seigaku, he was taken to the tennis courts so she could coach. There, he was expected to behave, which he did after he met Yamato-buchou, who scared the crap out of him. Being an impressionable eight year old meant that the weird personality creeped him out. But he grew to like the affectionate captain. He was definitely a good leader.

Sato spent the first two weeks avoiding the captain. He started to learn tennis when he was around seven, so he was just beginning to learn the aspects of hitting an accurate serve. Mitsu-nii was a bit more open with his emotions during this time. But really, how guarded could an eleven year old be?

Then again, it was Mitsu-nii and who ever said that Mitsu-nii was normal?

Kawamura-senpai and Fuji-senpai won the match 7-5, even after Hirakoba unleashed his Giant Habu. If Sato had to like anyone on the Higa chuu team, it would most likely be Hirakoba but that was beside the point. He didn't like the blonde or the team and that was that.

* * *

Next would be Eiji-senpai as Singles 2. Contrary to popular belief, Eiji-senpai had originally been a singles player. Only through hard work, commitment and a deep bond, did Oishi-fukubuchou and Eiji-senpai succeed as a doubles team. Because of Seigaku's pressing need for a doubles team, they were really successful. Their communication was top notch and so was their trust in each other. They truly functioned as a unit.

Having watched them evolve and grow, Sato was stung by Eiji-senpai's statement that he was never playing doubles again. If Sato was bothered by his comment, he didn't even want to know Oishi-fukubuchou felt. They were talented duo and they could go far if they continued to stay together.

Eiji-senpai easily won the first four games utilizing his newfound stamina and Kikumaru step against Kai.

People were weird; Sato knew that. His cousins were the weirdest people anyone could have ever know but what truly boggled Sato's mind was that people would purposefully limit their strength, just because. Some people, like Rokkaku's first year captain, Kentarou, improved under pressure. Now people like Fuji-senpai or Higa Chuu's Kai, Sato didn't understand. Of course, he never wanted to understand Fuji-senpai. His head might explode.

How the hell did people play tennis with a reverse grip? Sato tried that once and it wasn't pretty. Sato didn't understand how people played with their not dominant hand. Rafael Nadal's coach, Toni Nadal, taught his nephew to play with his left hand even though his dominant hand was his right hand. Although that may have had to do with the desire to get the spin on the ball that lefties naturally got. Sato tried doing that, and again, it wasn't pretty.

Sato could reason the possibility of being trained to do it their entire life but those were for the extreme talents like Echizen or Mitsu-nii. Fuji-senpai could be explained. If Fuji-senpai was serious all the time, the world might explode. No one should ever anger Fuji-senpai if they valued their lives.

But, enough about that, Eiji-senpai's match was far more important than Sato's musings. Eiji-senpai was now in a hole and Higa Chuu was making a comeback because of his switching of styles. Now what most people would consider a blessing in Eiji-senpai's favor, it was now a boon. The importance of Kai's new style was that it allowed him to wait until the last possible moment before hitting a shot.

For most, it wouldn't have been that bad. For Eiji-senpai, it was a problem; his eyes grasped movement very easily and he moved on instinct. Hence the reason why his acrobatic tennis was so successful; no one really knew what move he was going to make, except for Oishi-fukubuchou. Kai simply just hit to the spot that Eiji-senpai just left. The score quickly became 4-4, quickly diminishing Eiji-senpai's four game lead.

Eiji-senpai, who spent days increasing his stamina, his true weakness, was now dripping with sweat. Eiji-senpai had to do something quick or he would lose his singles match.

"Bah, I'm still no good at singles." Eiji-senpai groaned and complained. He looked to the sky and smiled. "Ah, might as well as go back to what I do know." He went to serve and the crowd gasped in shock; Sato was with them.

There was no way that this was even physically possible. One man doubles. Sato would have simply suggested that Eiji-senpai try hitting to Kai's backhand. His main weapon was his forehand after all. The flow of the match went back and forth and it eventually came to a tiebreaker.

"Fight-o Seigaku!"

Through an incredibly competitive tiebreak that defied that common sense, Eiji-senpai won the set 7-6 and Seigaku was into the third round officially. Unofficially, they would be playing the next two sets but Sato couldn't watch that, he had to go perform at the elementary school, and as much as he wanted to watch Inui-senpai and Kaidoh-senpai crush Doubles 1, he couldn't.

He smiled cheerfully as the Golden Pair was reunited, as Eiji-senpai put it, "Singles was too lonely". Sato snorted at that but he did have a point. In doubles, there was a certain bond between doubles partners who were just meant for each other. Like Eiji-senpai and Oishi-fukubuchou. Sato had yet to find his but Sato did just fine working with a random assortment of doubles partners.

* * *

**Comments:**

Flail. I hate school. Senior year sucks. College apps suck. So do SAT's.

On a brighter note, I predict faster updates in 2013. :D. So Sato doesn't have a doubles partner, officially. Spoiler alert for anyone who wants to guess who his true doubles partner is.

Anyone watching election night? OBAMA 2012. Moderate Democrat right here, even though I can't vote yet. D:

**Facts:**

Make that 3194 yen for Ryoma's Ponta.

I realized how much Ryoma was drinking and there was no way that was healthy.

I don't want Sato watching Tezuka's match

Sato is also kind of avoiding the captain

But that is not his fault

It's mutual avoidance

Sato likes listening to American music

Even if he can't understand it

He likes Florence and the Machine and Kelly Clarkson

Yes, he knows they are both women

But does he care?

Not really

He thinks they sing about topics that are somewhat important emotionally


	9. Chapter 9

And that sinking feeling was confirmed. Seigaku had to play Hyotei Gakuen. Again. Couldn't they just disappear from their lives? It would have been a lot easier for Seigaku. They barely won the last time but that could be besides the fact that Mitsu-nii wasn't at full strength. If he was, well, Atobe wouldn't have stood a chance.

Again, they were so many god damn people cheering; Sato could feel a migraine coming on. How in the hell did they find so many people to cheer for a simple tennis match?

Sato wasn't in the best mood because the wonderfully talented teacher that the Institute had found for him was a fraud. The fake had only wanted to meet the teenage piano idol and was kind of creepy about it. Pedophiliac kind of creepy. Sato nearly broke the teacher's finger when the teacher touched him for the umpteenth time.

But on the other hand, Atobe was kind of nice. Boastful and arrogant but nice. When the kitchen had exploded (courtesy of Tomo-chan), he had kindly helped them clean it up. Okay, he hired someone to do it but it was the thought that counted. But he was still weird.

But weird people didn't mean that they were bad people, they were just different and Sato dealt with different sorts of people all of the time. Take the Seishun Gakuen tennis club for example.

* * *

Singles 3 would be one interesting battle. During the training camp from hell in the mountains, everyone got better. Everyone honed their skills and talents and maybe got new ones as well. For Momo-senpai, he only built on his ability to read moods and atmosphere. He would be playing _The Man of a Thousand Techniques_, Oshitari Yuushi, a very dangerous man. Nothing on the levels of Atobe or Mitsu-nii, but still someone dangerous, even to Momo-senpai.

Show off, Sato thought, shaking his head discouragingly. Only Momo-senpai would go for a tiny pebble to start off a service ace for the match, but what bothered Sato the most, even though probably no body thought of it, was that Oshitari would have probably been able to reach the serve.

Of course, that being said, Sato was 100% sure that Momo-senpai would have never risked something like that if he didn't believe that it would happen. This sort of dominance continued until the score was 4-0, in Momo-senpai's favor.

Something was bothering Sato, he couldn't help it, he was a naturally skeptical person. Oshitari was better than this, he didn't become Hyotei's vice captain for nothing. Nothing against Momo-senpai, but even with his newly found insight, the match should not have been one sided.

Then Oshitari began striking back, somehow, Momo-senpai wasn't displaying the same type of insight he was before. Sato doubted that Momo-senpai suddenly just lost said insight but it was much more likely that Oshitari did something. The score quickly became 5-4 in Oshitari's favor, Momo-senpai helpless to do anything.

Sato had to leave early again. He had an appointment with one of his cousins. He needed help on his kick serve, it wasn't coming together as quickly as Sato would have liked it and he was definitely desperate for some help.

* * *

Obaa-chan said when she got home, soaked from the sudden summer shower, that the match had been postponed until nine next morning. Sato was making some hot chocolate for two due to the cold weather. "What were the scores?" He asked curiously, stirring his cup.

"2-1," Obaa-chan informed. "4-6, 7-5,7-6." She sipped her hot chocolate, savoring the warmness. "Tomorrow will be even harder," she noted.

"Probably," Sato shrugged. "The Golden Pair against a team that even Inui-senpai and Kaidoh-senpai lost to? Who knows what'll happen?"

"How's your serve coming along?" Obaa-chan questioned, "Shin said it was progressing."

"That's a word for it," Sato snorted, he ducked to dodge the light smack. "It's not good enough," he answered, more serious. "It's not a weapon yet."

"Give it time, Sato." Obaa-chan advised, "As long as you continue to work hard, it will come in time."

Sato shrugged, slightly discouraged. He had been working on the serve for nearly two weeks now, spending at least an hour a day working on it, and it wasn't up to Sato's standards.

"Now, I'm sure the boys would like it if you made lunch for them tomorrow," Obaa-chan had been hinting at the cooking for days now, Sato had been reluctant to do so because that would mean missing matches.

"... I guess I better get started." Momo-senpai had the appetite of a whale and there was a chance that Kaidoh-senpai would be goaded into an eating competition.

* * *

"Dang it, obaa-chan," Sato muttered to himself. This was his third trip from the bus stop where Tomo-chan had been dutifully watching the food for him, amidst some whines that she would be missing _Ryoma-sama_'s match against Atobe. He told her that against good players, Echizen had long matches. He reckoned that he had one more trip before he would be finished. Sometimes Sato wished that Momo-senpai didn't have such a big appetite.

He set the box down, jogging back to the bus stop where he met Tomo-chan for hopefully the last trip.

"We can go see Ryoma-sama's match, now right?" Tomo-chan chirped when Sato finished putting the last set of bentos down.

"Yeah, I guess," Sato answered, wiping a bit of sweat from his forehead. He walked comfortably there, despite Tomo-chan's attempts to drag him.

"89-89!" The referee called out. Sato whistled at the score.

He blinked, "That means the Golden Pair lost..." He left Tomo-chan to go find Momo-senpai. "What's happened so far?"

Momo-senpai glanced at him for a moment and looked back at the long lasting match. "The set or today?"

"Humor me," Sato answered. "Today."

"Well, we lost Doubles 1 by 6-7, tiebreaker score 7-9, on the bright side, Eiji and Oishi-fukubuchou went into _Synchro_." Momo-senpai informed. Sato gaped at the information; he knew how rare it was for anybody to go into Synchro. When a doubles team went into Synchro that basically meant they were lifelong partners. They were linked by destiny to be chosen to play together forever.

Sato smiled, it was fitting for Golden Pair, despite the bumps in the road, they were partners and were linked by a common bond. "Echizen?" Sato nodded towards the court, he kept his eyes still on the ongoing battle between the first year ace and the captain of Hyotei.

"It was a rough start," Momo-senpai answered. "Echizen got down 4-0 and somehow, he started winning. At 6-5 on serve, the lights went down, that's why they're gone." Sato hadn't even noticed. "It's been like this for the entire match pretty much."

"Competitive?" Sato guessed.

"Definitely."

* * *

Hah! So they were human. After an indefinite number of points, Echizen and Atobe had collapsed. Okay, morally, this was not a good thing. People should not collapse and have people laugh at them. More like fear, which was the response from the spectators.

They had ninety seconds before the next point began and Sato began to worry. Neither of them showed any signs of waking up.

Thirty seconds to go, Atobe got up, sweat dripping from his face and staining his shirt. Sato didn't even lift his eyes from Echizen. He gripped the fence this time; his teachers had made such a stink about his nail imprinted palms. Sato won the next recital without any competition.

"Echizen, I swear to god, if you don't get up, there is no way I'm going to let you be the next pillar without any competition!" Sato shouted, trying to infuriate the other first year.

Everyone stared at Sato and only through complete control did he keep the heat rising on his cheeks.

Thankfully, there was something else to distract them Sato's extremely stupid and reckless words. Echizen was getting up with five seconds to spare. His words were stupid because Echizen could crush him with a bat of his eye and no consideration.

Now that the crisis was temporarily over, Sato glanced at Atobe who seemed frozen. He hadn't moved in the time he got up which could be explain by the fact that he was mentally recovering. But still he hadn't moved when Echizen prepared to serve and he stayed motionless when Echizen somehow managed the strength to hit a twist serve. He stayed still even as the match finished with Echizen's victory 119-117 in the tiebreaker.

Sato left when Echizen hopped over the next, ready to do something, Sato didn't know what. He had to if he wanted to prepare the bentos in time.

* * *

"Hey you guys!" Obaa-chan called out. "My grandson brought you food!"

"Specialized bentos, actually," Sato informed. "I've got one for Fuji-senpai and if anyone touches that, I will kill them. You have no idea how long it took for me to cook it." He handed Fuji-senpai the specialized bento.

Fuji-senpai peered into the bento and smiled. "Is this..."

"Cajun cuisine, as in your favorite type of food. Yes," Sato responded quickly. "Rice with Andouille and a mixture of boiled Tabasco and Cayenne peppers. You're welcome."

"Thanks Sato-kun," Fuji-senpai purred.

"For Kawamura-senpai, I have fish roe rice bowl," Sato sorted through the bentos and found the power player's bento. "And so on..." He pointed at another set of boxes of food. "Those are Omunsubi for the nonregulars and if anyone wants more food, I have some grapes, apples, oranges and peaches." He took a deep breath and side stepped as he let the non regulars of the club snag the Omunsubi.

Sato glanced over at Echizen who got up, most likely to get more Ponta and he hesitantly followed him, unsure of whether or not his idea was a good idea. He held a miniaturized bento box.

"Echizen," he faltered and summoned up his courage. "This is from Tomo-chan for your victory against Atobe, from me, I mean. Because if you ate her actual cooking, you'd get food poisoning and that wouldn't be good for the team. So don't thank her for the Omunsubi because she won't know what you're talking about." He shoved the box towards Echizen, hoping that the other first year would accept it. "They're tennis ball shaped because I figured that Tomo-chan would want them to be like this."

"Ah," Echizen smirked. "So Ryuzaki is domestic like this?"

Saying nothing, Sato blushed and kept his eyes to the ground. By doing so, he hadn't noticed someone in the branches above him and was caught off guard when a body landed on him. He held his head as his brain figuratively scrambled around and tried to get sense of his bearings.

"Ah Koshimae!" He heard through muffled ears. His head was still spinning. What had landed on him? A Mack truck?

"Stop thief!" Next thing he knew, the tennis ball shaped omunsubi was on the floor. Sato sighed, he hated wasted food.

A figure with red head crouched next to Sato, snatching the two omunsubi before Sato could pick them off the ground. "Can I eat it?"

"Uh, sure." Sato answered confused, they were dirty but he supposed that it didn't matter to the red haired boy. Looking at him through clearer eyes, Sato recognized him. It was Kintaro Toyama, the Super rookie of the West.

"Wow, this is so good!" Kintaro said in amazement, staring at Sato as if he was the best cook on the earth.

Sato offered a small smile as he sweatdropped.

"Koshimae, I want a match between you and me..." Kintaro said before chewing on another tainted omunsubi.

"No." Echizen said bluntly.

"What?"

"Oi, Kintaro-san! It's your turn!" Kintaro's teammates, Shitenhouji, called for him to play his next match.

"Oh, what? Such bad timing..." Kintaro turned and ran. "Just wait a little bit Koshimae, I'll be back real soon!"

Sato narrowed his eyes, "Hey, Echizen. Isn't Shitenhouji's quarterfinal opponent Fudomine?"

"Is that so?"

"That kid is a first-year from Osaka's representative, Shitenhouji, Tooyama Kintaro. You saw the power of that straight-attack ball you avoided," Inui-senpai informed as he stepped out of the bushes, followed by Momo-senpai and Eiji-senpai. Sato didn't even know they were there. "If you are the East's super rookie...then he is the West's super rookie."

"Then senpais are the east's spying devils." Echizen retorted snarkily back. Sato kept quiet the fact that it was he who reported the information to Inui-senpai. "Ryuzaki, let's go."

"Wait, Koshimae, where are you going?" It was Kintaro against, only slightly out of breath this time.

Echizen froze and Sato glanced back. They both turned to the courts and saw Ibu of Fudomine kneeling on the ground crowded by his teammates.

"Fudomine Singles 3, Ibu Shinji, Forfeit!" The announcement rang out. Sato could have sworn that Kintaro had only been gone for a few minutes, how in the world did he force a forfeit against someone like Ibu when Ibu had given Echizen trouble just a few months ago?

"Taichibana-san, please let me continue to play!" Ibu pleaded his captain and coach. "I can't lose in a place like this... I can't , I just can't! I don't want to be a burden."

Kamio, speed demon of Fudomine, grabbed Ibu's wrist, which cause him to moan in pain. "Don't push yourself, Shinji." He said. Sato deduced that somehow in the course of one game, Kintaro had damaged Ibu's wrists. Sato pursed his lips, how much raw power did Kintaro have? "From now, we'll take them on."

"He beat Ibu who fought equally against Ochibi, so easily," Eiji-senpai said disbelievingly.

"You're small, I thought you were a big man." Kintaro grinned broadly.

"What do you want?" Echizen answered, much more serious than he had been in the last ten minutes."

"Don't act like you don't know. A match, Koshimae." A bandaged hand karate chopped Kintaro on the head.

"What are you doing, you should be cheering Kintaro," A handsome young teenager entered the conversation.

"But look Shiraishi! Just like Kenya said!" Even if more possible, Kintaro got more excited. "He has a body of steel, his fingers release deadly toxins and he'll stare you down with his three eyes, the huge guy who just returned from America... Koshimae!" Sato could do nothing but stare at the other first year. What were they telling the poor child?

"Really. Well it's more accurate to say that he has incredible nerves of steel and he is extremely cocky. He'll stare you down with his 'San Pan Gaku', Echizen, who just returned from America." Shiraishi informed. Now that sounded much more accurate. Sato wondered how Kintaro managed to screw up the description. "Right?" Shiraishi glanced back at Echizen.

Sato recognized Shiraishi as the other player in the Top 5 of Japan's best Junior High player. He was the captain of the Shitenhouji, the team who had lost to Rikkai Dai in the finals last year.

"We came to Tokyo anyways! I wanna fight with all I got!" Kintaro cheered loudly. "You beat that super strong gorilla Sanada, right?"

Sato choked on that rather rude description of Sanada. Although the teenager looked like an full grown adult for his age, a gorilla was not a proper term for the fukubuchou.

"Eh? Yeah..."

"Well then," Kintaro raised his finger, "Let's have a match then."

"No!" Shiraishi demanded. "You should at least watch your teammates' matches, Kin-chan!"

"Yes, I'm gonna do it!"

"No!"

"YES!"

"No!"

It was like watching two five year olds squabble over who should clean up a mess.

"Fine, it can't be helped." Shiraishi sighed as if he was reaching a last resort.

"The bandages?! Wa-wait a second!" Kintaro sputtered wildly. "Don't do it! No, not the poisoned hands! I don't want to die yet, forgive me! I read about them in a manga! They are alternatively exposed to burned sand and poison! If you suffer two weeks from it, the hand absorbs the poison and the person who touches that hand is going to die!"

"You want to die, Kin-chan?" Shiraishi asked coolly. Sato thought it was out of place to use a nickname with a death threat.

Kintaro shook his head wildly. "But Kin-chan, if we win against Fudomine right now..." Shiraishi began wrapping up his bandages. "We play Koshimae's Seigaku, next."

"Really?" Kintaro immediately brightened up. "Alright! Cheer for me! Koshimae, see you later!" He ran off.

"I caused you guys some trouble..." Shiraishi tightened up his bandages up to his forearm.

"...Poisoned bandages?" Eiji-senpai and Momo-senpai asked.

"It was a lie. If you don't do that, you can't force that brat to do anything." Shiraishi turned to go back to the back, waving goodbye, despite not facing them. "See you in the finals, Seigaku."

"He's already claimed victory against Fudomine." Momo-senpai commented.

"Well, it's expected of the captain of last year's finalists." Eiji-senpai agreed.

"He is Osaka's Shitenhouji, Shiraishi Kuranosuke." Inui-senpai informed.

* * *

Omake:

"Hey, Momo-chan, don't you think To-kun's being really cold to Tezuka-buchou?" Kikumaru asked, whispering into the spiky haired power player.

"I thought that too," Momoshirou frowned. "Wouldn't think Sato would have handed Tezuka-buchou's bento to him personally? They are close, right?"

"Yup!" Kikumaru nodded. "When we were first years, Sato would follow Tezuka-buchou like a lost little puppy."

"Well, if Sato's mad, there is no way we can do anything about it."

* * *

**Comments:**

Yes, I skipped over the majority of the Hyotei matches. I really want to speed this up so we can get on to the High school side of this story. I'd probably say two more chapters and then we'll be done for the first arc.

Sato is beginning to like Ryoma, however because he knows Ryoma could be straight, he isn't sure because Ryoma's so tennis obsessed. So he'll leave it alone and he also doesn't want to hurt Tomoka's feelings.

**Facts:**

Sato reads a lot of manga

Not as much as Kintaro but he reads them when they're going over to his cousin's house.

His favorites include Baby Steps, Kuroko no Basuke, Hikaru no Go and Bleach

Just because

He has six first cousin's once removed (his cousin's children)

One of them is older than him

His family is pretty much everywhere and it's hard to get rid of them

They're like cockroaches but nicer

Still avoiding Tezuka here

It took him forever to cook Fuji's food because it was foreign

Never again


	10. Chapter 10

Sato had to admit, Shintenhouji was good. He really shouldn't have been all that surprised with that Kintarou kid beating Shinji-san so easily, but Kamio-san and Ishida-san were crushed just as easily by the Speed Star of Naniwa, Oshitari Kenya, and the Hadokyuu founder, Ishida Gin.

Bit terrifying they both were and they weren't even finished yet. However, Kamio-san and Ishida-san were not going down so easily and they somehow took another level in their ability, going faster and harder than Sato had ever seen them go before.

But trouble was brewing on horizon and Oshitari (Sato had to wonder if he was related to Hyotei's Oshitari) and Ishida of Shitenhouji revealed that they were wearing weights that made a very loud thud when they hit the ground, creating a small puff of dust.

Sato could feel his stomach sinking. Fudomine had to resign 4-0, Kamio-san and Ishida-san having been pushed past their limits to clear exhaustion from their match. Life was like that, people could pour their hearts and souls into something and still fall short because life owed them nothing.

Watching the interactions of the Shitenhouji tennis club regulars, Sato came to the conclusion... they were just as weird or even more weird than Seigaku's tennis club regulars. They weren't as bad as his cousins though.

Singles 2 was about to begin. It would be a reunion of the Two Wings of Kyuushuu High. After their two strongest players left the team and the school, Kyuushuu High faded back into the shadows of the mediocrity. Tough luck.

But now they were back and fighting on opposite teams. It would be up to Fudomine's captain, Tachibana Kippei, to reverse the flow and lead Fudomine to victory and to the semifinals where Seigaku would be eagerly waiting. To win.

Their match started up explosively as their rivalry had been as Chitose-san, Shitenhouji's Singles 2, started with Muga no Kyouchi before a point even started. Tachibana-san walked off, unaffected with Shitenhouji's theatrics. It was as if he was used to it. Sato had only heard rumors of Chitose-san's injury, having occurred in Mitsu-nii's first year and Sato had yet to establish his information network, so he didn't know the entire story.

Their play was impressive and their footwork was impeccable...and then something unbelievable happened. It surprised every spectator and even the opponents on the court, except for one man. Tachibana-san allowed to ball hit him smack on the face, blackening his eye. "This is my atonement," Tachibana-san declared sternly and walked off to take his position on the AD side of the court.

Sato admired Tachibana-san. Not to the point of Mitsu-nii but still. He was the captain of a strong and competent team and he took no bullshit. He was gruff and stern, very much like Mitsu-nii, but he showed his softer side a lot more often. After Sato had heard of the chaos that Fudomine had undergone last year, the fact that they even reached Nationals with a brand new program was surprising, to say the least. Few programs ever had such success. Making it to Nationals was a rare, untouchable dream for most schools and Fudomine accomplished it in one year. They needed a good leader to do that and Tachibana Kippei was just that. A leader. A great leader.

Now was an incomparable battle of guts, wits and brevity. It was comparable to Mitsu-nii's battle with Atobe-san or Echizen's match with Sanada-san. Everything was given, there was no holding back. There was no mercy for none was given. They knew what their opponent was capable of and knew that they could not truly lose to each other.

Tachibana easily took the lead with his signature "Wild Lion", a move that Sato didn't even try to understand. Techniques, like Fuji-senpai's Three Counters? Easy to understand. Fuji-senpai just put an unbelievable amount of spin on the ball, more than what seemed possible but he was Fuji-senpai. His existence was impossible. Then Chitose-san whipped out his signature move, Kamikushi. Now this one Sato understood, Chitose hit the ball perpendicular to the ground, creating a spin and within seconds, the ball would rise up and looked like it disappeared. To most it seemed impossible to counter.

Not so to Tachibana-san, he quickly figured it out in one game and countered with Super Rising, a move that most knew but would have never thought about using it against Kamikushi. Sato even knew how to do it and he wouldn't have figured out to use it against Kamikushi. It teetered and tottered like that until 5-4, Chitose-san on serve.

"In Muga no Kyouchi, there are three doors," Chitose-san declared. What? What? This was the first he had ever heard about Muga no Kyouchi. He preferred to think of Muga no Kyouchi as an amazing trump card that he would never understand. He liked it like that. It was simple.

"As you know Muga no Kyouchi does not rely on movements based on thought but instinct, it draws from your memories, where you do not think about your actions but instead _feel_. During those moments, it takes a lot of energy to withstand it and so in that very instant, it attacks." Chitose-san just stood there, not caring for the twenty-second time limits. "When I was in the hospital, recovering from my injury, I had the opportunity to use the brain scanners there... I was fascinated with the idea of Muga no Kyouchi.

I trained every day, pushing my limits and then I discovered, there are three doors deep inside Muga no Kyouchi." He pointed at Mitsu-nii, smiling. "Hyakuren Jitoku no Kiwami is one of the three doors." Of course, Mitsu-nii really was an excellent player; he was already through the first door.

"So, which of the doors have you open and stepped through?" Tachibana-san asked after they played another point. Chitose-san won that one.

"Don't be ridiculous," Chitose-san answered. "My legs won't move through it, opening it is exhausted enough." Sato, however, believed that Chitose-san would open the door and use it, right now. This was a special match after all, the rivals and friends were playing for the first time since their first year.

"Don't hold back! Come at me!"

* * *

If there was one word to describe Saiki Kanpatsu no Kiwami, it would be strange. Chitose-san appeared undisturbed and didn't seem to know there was any change but upon further inspection, he was _sparkling_.

Also Chitose had the new ability to predict how long a rally would be. Now as a sport, tennis was kind of simple. Keep the ball in play and hit one more shot than her opponent. That's how the majority of the points were won but Sato had never seen a person who could effortlessly predict how long a rally would be. Nifty.

From what his senpai theorized, Sato could only guess that Chitose-san, relying on his knowledge and expectation of Tachibana-san to play as well as he did. So it didn't seem to be all magic but an exact science. His head was beginning to hurt.

But Tachibana-san wasn't giving up yet, not on match point. He released his final trump card, Abare Dama, a shot that Sato didn't fully understand.

Chitose-san, 7-5 and revealed a disturbing truth. Tachibana-san could have the game much more closer if he had aimed for Chitose-san's blind spot, his left side, which was his right eye's blind spot.

There were days Sato questioned the sanity of the Junior High tennis and this was one of them. Sato also learned of the third and final door, the door that was rumored to have been opened by one person and that door was called Teni Muhou no Kiwami.

Sato watched, slightly disinterested. His obaa-chan was giving a pep talk, warning against Shitenhouji, a team that had clearly proven their strength. For the first time ever, Obaa-chan was actually releasing the line-up early. What a thought. Singles 3 would be Fuji-senpai, Doubles 2 would be Kaidoh-senpai and Momo-senpai, Singles 2 would be Kawamura-senpai, Doubles 1 would not be the Golden Pair but Mitsu-nii and Inui-senpai. This struck Sato as odd because Mitsu-nii never played doubles. Ever. Also this year, Inui-senpai's more common doubles partner was Kaidph-senpai. Singles 1 was Echizen. They were probably trying to set up an encounter between Kintaro-san and Echizen.

Unfortunately, Sato had a piano lesson the morning of the semifinal match, which he valiantly tried to get rescheduled, and he failed so he would miss the two hours of the match. Damn.

* * *

Sato flexed his fingers and went through another rendition of Waldstein Sonata. He had gone over it twice, going slower than it was meant to play that it really was supposed to be played. He had the opinion that his new teacher liked watching him suffer.

He winced as he hit the wrong key and stopped. "This is evil," he muttered, banging her head on the piano.

"You have six months to master it, Ryuzaki-kun," his teacher soothed. "Relax and go through it again." This one was new but Sato knew of her.

Sato groaned and raised her head, his eyes swimming in complicated notes and frustrating first movement. On paper, it didn't seem so difficult; it opened with repeated chords that seem rushed like a bird frightened until notes basically stumbled into each other. This led to Sato's own fingers stumbling into each other.

This went on for the forty minutes and Sato felt like crying when he left the Institute, feeling miserable, having only mastered the first movement or so. Now he got to go to a freaking nail biter match where he'd probably get yelled at mistreating his hands, again.

He was treated to an extremely strange sight. It was Doubles 2, there was one Shitenhouji who was wearing a mask slash bandana thing and another who had a chonin haircut and his own teammates were wearing very colorful masks. Sato sighed, unfortunately, this was not the worst he had ever seen. That honor belonged to one of his cousins walking into a hotel lobby wearing clown makeup and shirtless. Apparently, he didn't have any mirrors. Long story that part but Sato had to wonder why how he didn't know that he was shirtless.

Sato approached Eiji-senpai and Oishi-fukubuchou with a questioning glance on his face. "..."

They pointed at the scoreboard, mute. 5-5, so it was a tight match. Sato mused. Then his eyes bugged out at the first score 6-7. That meant that Fuji-senpai had lost.

"What...happened?" Sato asked, utterly in disbelief. No one truly knew what was in Fuji-senpai's limits were. He was comfortably placed at number 2 in the club before Echizen arrived, he also liked messing with Inui-senpai by giving him false data. So Sato thought he was kind of invincible. Not invincible like Mitsu-nii but you know, unstoppable when he wanted to be.

"Shirashi, his Bible tennis, is beyond amazing." Eiji-senpai confided. "He just got ahead and Fujiko had to use all three of his new counters but it was too much."

"Bible Tennis," Sato repeated. "Shiraishi's style of tennis that masters all the basics an a little bit more. The only weakness I think he actually has, if at all, is that his style is the fact that type of style while it theoretically has no weaknesses is that it has no strengths. He doesn't have a winning shot, like Momo-senpai has his Dunk Smash or when Echizen uses his Drives." He paused, "He may be an all rounder but in most respects, he's a counterpuncher, in theory."

"He has an Entaku shot," Oishi-fukubuchou mentioned. "He used against Fuji."

"Correction," he took out a small spiral notebook and wrote it down. "Can you describe the shot for me?"

"He used the frame to hit the ball and it caused it to fly in a ring formation," Fuji-senpai answered, standing behind them.

"I see," Sato muttered. "Just how often did he hit that shot?"

"Just once," Fuji-senpai replied. "He used it as a smash."

Sato looked up, "Was your Higuma Otoshi, um, useless against it?"

"No," Fuji-senpai answered quite truthfully. "I wasn't given the opportunity to use it."

"Oh!" Sato brightened. "I get it. Because the ball spirals out on the ground and bounces twice before you reach it." He scribbled down more notes as Shitenhouji's captain. "So, uh, what's going on here?" Sato asked, jabbing his pencil at the scene before him.

"Kaidoh and Momo-chan were psyched out." Eiji-senpai explained. "They like using comedy to distract them." He eyed Sato with a strong stare. "Sato, they did some interesting things during the match."

"Like...?"

"Koharu liked flirting with Kaidoh and Momo," Fuji-senpai replied.

"Not all gay people are the same, Eiji-senpai," Sato said loftily. "They were bothered by it, weren't they?"

"To say the least."

"Well, the only person who they know is gay and interact is with me, so I'm guessing they were a little bothered by it since it was their first time." Sato paused. "Of course that's not really an excuse for losing so badly."

Fuji-senpai chuckled. "That's Tezuka's protégé for you, no excuses for losing."

"Well," Sato shrugged. "Sure, you can lose but you shouldn't lose if the person is weaker than you." He glanced at the extremely weird scene again. The Shitenhouji player wearing the mask sounded a lot like Momo-senpai. He blinked in surprise and turned to face the match, just like his senpai did.

To say the match was different than any match Sato had ever seen would be an understatement. Apparently, according to Inui-senpai, Bandana man had been studying the mannerisms of both Kaidoh-senpai and Momo-senpai while Chonin boy had been distracting them.

And then Momo-senpai used his ... Jack Knife. Sato wasn't sure why that was weird as everyone around him was gasping and then Kaidoh-senpai used his Tornado Snake. Everyone seemed surprised but Sato didn't know anything different. The two kept alternating their signature moves but that like that was anything new.

He knew Kaidoh-senpai and Momo-senpai distinctively because he had spent so much time watching their development. Obaa-chan and Mitsu-nii were very close to kicking them both out of the club, no matter how fast they worked, because of their constant, distracting fights was putting them in danger. He managed to convince them to let Kaidoh-senpai and Momo-senpai stay because they had potential. Potential like Eiji-senpai did or Kawamura-senpai did. When you looked at them in their first year, you didn't see a future regular but Sato did.

He was able to see their potential. It was because of him that Oishi-fukubuchou was chosen as a hitting partner in his first year. Yes, he would admit that he didn't need to advise the captain and his obaa-chan about Fuji-senpai or Mitsu-nii but that was because they didn't really need advising about them. Mitsu-nii was Mitsu-nii and Fuji-senpai's potential was obvious the moment he stepped out on the court.

He just kept taking notes because he could and the fact he would probably need them for later, noticing the slight differences in the styles they hit their rival's shots. Just because they knew them didn't mean they knew them the other did.

He wasn't sure why everyone thought that Kaidoh-senpai and Momo-senpai were switched because they weren't.

The secret that wasn't really a secret or not a well-kept secret at least for Sato was revealed. Momo-senpai faked Shitenhouji out by threatening to finish the game with a Dunk Smash, a shot that should always be avoided by the face, as Duck Face learned, so they ran. But in reality, he hit a drop shot just as Bandana man and Chonin boy left the service box. Certainly fit Momo-senpai's style in finishing the game like that. He read their body language and responded correctly. Sato hummed to himself cheerfully, scribbling down even more tidbits of useful notes, erasing the horror that was his piano lesson of his morning.

"Sato," his obaa-chan asked. "Did you know?"

Sato nodded. Kawamura-senpai was going to play Ishida-san, the older brother to Fudomine's Ishida-san, who was supposedly the creator of the Hadokyuu, the key piece to Kawamura-senpai's offensive style. Sato wasn't going to doubt that because he certainly had the muscles to prove it.

His obaa-chan smiled and turned back to the match, signaling that this converstaion would continue, much later.

To his surprise, Kawamura-senpai, right from the get go, was using Dash Hadokyuu, a move that he was only supposed to use once during a match because it caused damage to his muscles. Sato could feel his gut sinking. Was the fact he was using the Dash Hadokyuu so earlier a sign that he was truly desperate in his match against he Hadokyuu Master?

Kawamura-senpai was very much the same boy from when he was a first year. Shy, quiet and unassuming until he picked up a racket. Combined with that behavior, it led to a low self confidence as well as some bullying from some jealous third years and the fact that he was with some pretty talented first years.

Also, as a result, along with the fact he only just became a regular that summer, Kawamura-senpai probably felt like he was the dead weight of the team. And if it were a different person, Sato would agree. But this was Kawamura-senpai who always inspired hope as a kind third year. Hope during a match as well as hope for people who believed that they didn't have a chance at becoming a regular. Yes, Kawamura-senpai was a very valuable senpai.

Ishida-san blew Kawamura-senpai off the court, forcing him on his knees after Kawamura-senpai hit Dash Hadokyuu after Dash Hadokyuu. He also revealed that he had 108 levels of Hadokyuu, all of them stronger than the next.

Sato placed his notebook and took some very fast and quick steps past his obaa-chan and his entire team. He had some errands to run.

* * *

When Sato had returned from the nearest convenience store with small bandages, heavy duty bandages, antiseptic and rubbing alcohol while placing a call to an uncle about a possible trip to the hospital with a tennis senpai, when he returned the score was 5-0.

Seigaku was losing hope. Ishida-san revealed that during the entire match, he was nullifying Kawamura-senpai's Hadokyuu. It was heartbreaking to watch. Kawamura-senpai often consulted with Sato who consulted with his uncle, the athletic trainer, about the best way to increase his muscle mass without seriously injuring himself.

Kawamura-senpai wanted to be Japan's Junior High Number One Power player. And he was going to hurt himself doing it or die trying.

When Kawamura-senpai that he was not willing to back down, to surrender. Ishida-san unleashed his 21st, 22nd and 23rd Hadokyuu, which sent him flying into stands...and into the hands of Akutsu Jin, who basically disappeared off Sato's radar when he retired from Yamabuki's tennis club. He still scared the crap out of Sato.

While Kawamura-senpai limped down the stairs in obvious pain, Sato could not visibly see any evidence of broken bones. He was clutching his right arms but that might have been pain in the wrist.

"Go Taka-senpai!" Sato cheered, ignoring the stares aimed at him. Taka-senpai gave a small smile and continued to limp back down to the court.

"Burning!" Taka-senpai cried. "This is the end!" But his troubles were only beginning. His toss was too much in front of him and he didn't have any balance. The serve hit the frame instead and traveled far faster than any shot Sato had seen during the match.

Ishida-san's racket flew out of his hand and he seemed... upset. But even he struggled to pick up his racket.

"His arm...?" Echoed around the stadium.

With that shot that wasn't really a Hadokyuu, Taka-senpai injured Ishida-san's wrist. Taka-senpai was helped into a chair where Sato was waiting with Oishi-fukubuchou.

"I'm going to take him to the hospital," Sato informed Oishi-fukubuchou, taking in Taka-san's massive amount of injuries.

"Sato-kun, you don't want to watch Echizen's match?" Oishi-fukubuchou asked, concern written all over his face.

Sato shrugged. "Taka-senpai's condition worries me more."

Oishi-fukubuchou nodded. "Go, the nearest hospital is five miles from here. I'm sure Kawamura-san will help you take his son to the hospital."

"Thanks fukubuchou," Sato smiled. "We'll be alright, Ja!"

* * *

As they were driving along in Kawamura-san's sushi cart, that was a first Sato would admit. He had a few questions for Taka-senpai and he couldn't find any better time to ask him.

Lying on a makeshift bed, made out of tablecloths and boxes, Taka-senpai was surprisingly conscious; Sato wasn't sure that was a good thing. "Taka-senpai, if you don't mind, could I ask you a couple questions?"

"That's alright, Sato-kun," Taka-senpai smiled. If he showed any indication that Sato had changed his manner of addressing him, Sato didn't notice it.

"Taka-senpai, you're really hurt, why continue playing through the pain when you didn't really have a chance of winning?"

"Straight to the heart, Sato-kun." Taka-senpai thought for a moment and finally answered. "It's not hard for me to think about. This was the last match I would ever play and I don't mind putting my all into it. Sato-kun, the team was relying on me and even if I couldn't win, I wanted to try. There's nothing wrong with trying, Sato-kun, The only reason a person has a hundred percent chance of losing is if they give wholly and utterly."

Well, that was kind of enlightening speech or talk. But that idea was reflected in Seigaku a lot, Sato mused. Taka-senpai's father offered him a ride back but Sato could tell that he really want to stay with his son, so instead Sato took the train back.

* * *

Thankfully, there was a map at the station and Sato was able to find his way back to the Tokyo Municipal Area Tennis Court.

When he finally reached the match, he was treated to a one on one rally between Chitose-san and Mitsu-nii, which would have been normal, had it been an actual singles match. For some reason, Inui-senpai and the other Shitenhouji player were staying out of the match. The score was 5-1 and Sato walked down the stairs, careful not to trip and fall flat on his face.

By the time he made it to flat surface, Mitsu-nii had won the match 6-1 and Seigaku would be advancing to the finals.

"Could someone tell me which hospital Kawamura is?" Ishida-san asked, his arm already wrapped in a sling.

Oishi-fukubuchou nudged Sato, who coughed. "It's alright, there's nothing really wrong with him. Nothing they couldn't fix. He's been diagnosed with three broken wrings, his thigh suffered heavy damage, his skull was hurt and his right ankle was sprained." Sato elaborated.

Ishida-san sweatdropped.

"He'll be really happy to see you."

All the pleasantries were exchanged and Chitose-san kept bothering Mitsu-nii about this 'thief bro', something Sato didn't want to know about either. Ignorance was Bliss.

"Then what about me?" Kintaro-kun asked, pointing his finger at himself. "I haven't even played against Echizen."

Echizen responded in what Sato considered in a really childish manner; he stuck his tongue and did a victory sign.

Through a series of events that involved some sadness from the Shitenhouji regulars, hesitance from the Seigaku regulars and some pleading from Horio-kun's older brother, Echizen ended up playing a single point with Kintaro-kun. Something about this entire event did not feel good. Heck, this entire match did not feel good.

If there was one word to describe the intense rally between Echizen and Kintaro-kun would be refined and unrefined. Sato should probably have had an inkling about Kintaro-kun's style of playing when he first met him but Kintaro-kun was truly a wild player.

His style was like Akutsu's tenfold but his personality was a lot more friendly. Needless to say, all of Echizen's trump cards were revealed.

And then, the pseudo match ended in a draw, the ball was cut in half and split on either side of the net, Sato felt kind of cheated.

"...Pinnacle of Perfection?"

* * *

For reasons unknown, Sato was dragged into the Yakiniku celebration and dumped there. Actually he knew why, his grandmother abandoned him with his slightly insane teammates, all on varying degrees of insanity.

He learned a lot about his teammates, that he didn't really want to know. He learned that Kaidoh-senpai and Momo-senpai still bickered like seven year-olds, Echizen liked his meat plain without sauce, Mitsu-nii and Fuji-senpai could argue over meat for a while and Oishi-fukubuchou was a very scary Yakiniku Magistrate.

And the entire situation somehow devolved into a Yakiniku eating competition. Involving Inui Juice with other teams. This was not going to end well, for anyone.

Thankfully, they only needed six people per team so Sato was spared from choking himself via meat. He would get to eat in peace. Well, in relative peace.

He sat with Kaidoh-senpai and Taka-senpai while Eiji-senpai proved commentary with Hyotei's Oshitari-san who was actually related to the Shitenhouji's.

The first drink was Inui's Special Vegetable Juice and each team lost a player except Higa and Seigaku, whose drinker was Fuji-senpai, unsurprisngly.

The were eating a disgustingly large amount of meat that bothered Sato on so many levels. But this was their choice, being exposed to Inui's Juice.

Then... Sato couldn't really remember the rest, all he remembered was screaming and a really bad smell. And then there was his obaa-chan's screaming over a really big bill, so she fainted as well.

Thankfully Atobe-san was conscious enough to offer paying for the bill.

* * *

**Omake:**

Now Sato wasn't the one to sympathize with enemy but when he saw Rikkaidai's second year ace, Kirihara Akaya, he just had to wince. Kirihara-san was all bloody and nailed to a makeshift cross that used to be the fence.

Well at least the medical supplies he bought weren't going to go to waste.

* * *

**Comments:**

It's been a while, hasn't it? I can't believe I got two chapters typed in one day, the other chapter belonging to Crest of the Wave, my Hikaru no Go genderbent fic. I really like genderbenders; I wish there were more of them in the world.

So Sato goes through a lot of teachers, mostly because he gets better and so the teachers get a massive inferiority complex when they believe that they can't teach Sato anymore. Of course, he still has a lot to learn, seeing as he's only twelve. Really, who wants to be a teacher to a kid who's ten times better than them?

The point of the omake is that Sato leaves the medical supplies with Rikkaidai, who uses it to patch Kirihara up. He helps Kirihara in a rather indirect way because Rikkaidai scares him.

**Facts:**

Sato's favorite regular who is Tezuka is Kawamura

Like Ferrer, Kawamura works harder than Sato has ever known

Except for Kaidoh, but Kawamura, in Sato's opinion, has less talent than Kaidoh

Sato's really shy but you can't really tell with his interactions with the Seigaku regulars

Since he's know them for at least two or three years

But get him around Hyotei or Fudomine and he's mute

And clumsy

He's run into a wall once

He got laughed at for a while by his cousins

After they worried about him for twenty minutes

Then they realized that he was okay


	11. Chapter 11

So here Sato was, standing on another tennis court, pretending to be a person that he wasn't. Again. Stupid Echizen, even on the most important day of his first year life, he couldn't wake up early.

Through concentration, he, Sato, managed to keep his knees from shaking, just barely but as a result, he barely heard what was said, if at all. Fine by him, just so long he didn't blow his cover. Next time he saw Echizen, he was shoving Ponta down his throat.

After a very long and stressful opening ceremony, they finally got word from Echizen, or someone who knew where he was. He was apparently in Karuzawa. This did not alleviate Seigaku's distress. But in a random series of events that Sato did not want to understand, Momo-senpai left with Atobe-san to find and get the troublesome first year.

Singles 3 would be Sanada versus Mitsu-nii. Rikkaidai's vice captain versus Seigaku's captain. It would be an amazing match to witness because truly, Sato did not know who was better. He would, being biased, say that Mitsu-nii would be the winner but Sanada was sure to have something up his sleeve. So, trying and struggling, to be objective, Sato would have to say that this was anyone's game.

"I will have my revenge here." Sato kind of knew, not really, what he was talking about. Word of mouth said that they had played each other in a Junior Tournament, just before they had entered Junior High. Sanada had just lost to Yukimura in the finals of said tournament and Mitsu-nii had promptly challenged Sanada afterwards. Sanada had lost a crushing defeat, 6-1, 6-0. It seemed that Sanada had carried that resentment for two wholes years.

In a fast but very competitive point, Sanada unleashed _Wind_ and _Fire_, respectively. Sato wasn't sure at what he was trying to accomplish but it seemed to be working. Tezuka Zone was already being used ... and the lines were beginning to blur. What was going on? Was the infallible Tezuka Zone failing? Was Sanada trying to break Mitsu-nii's trump card? In the very first game? It seemed ambitious for Sato to even consider it but then again, Sanada was a very ambitious person.

Crap. What was Mitsu-nii going to do?

* * *

This was not good. The numerous bags of ice Sato hauled for Mitsu-nii were beginning to numb his fingers and the swelling of Mitsu-nii's was bothering him.

Mitsu-nii quickly was down 4-0 when Sanada had annihilated Tezuka Zone with Lightning and Shadow, two moves that Sanada had sealed away when he played against Echizen. Sato didn't necessarily understand why Sanada did it but those two moves did its job. Sanada was able to seal off Saiki Kanpatsu no Kiwami and Hyakuren Jitoku no Kiwami. So what could Mitsu-nii do but the impossible?

Tezuka Phantom worked extremely well, well enough to even the score to four all. But all things had a price and this one may have been the worse that Mitsu-nii had ever paid. He was sacrificing his arm. Tezuka Zone strained, yes but just barely but Tezuka Phantom had strained his arm nearly six times the normal level of Tezuka Zone.

Now the score was 5-4 and it was changeover. Mitsu-nii's arm looked seriously injured. It was bruised and congested with blood. Mitsu-nii was the type to sacrifice his arm, his career for his team. Sato applied the ice that he had brought while Oishi-fukubuchou talked to Mitsu-nii about his decision, most likely supporting him.

Sanada was most likely facing the same thing, his knees swollen from hitting too many Lightning.

"I know we came here to win," Mitsu-nii remarked. "Right?" The entire club broke out in cheers, everyone being inspired by their captain's brave words but Sato held some reservations.

"Is this really worth it?" Sato murmured after Oishi-fukubuchou went back into the stands. "I thought you wanted to go to Germany and become a pro, Mitsu-nii. But I guess, if you really are willing to do this to yourself again, it really is worth it." Sato smiled weakly. "If this means so much to you, Mitsu-nii, I won't be the one to lecture you uselessly, especially if it means you're not going to listen." Sato paused, Taka-senpai's words echoing in his mind. "Lead us to victory, Mitsu-buchou. Do what can't be done."

Sato watched mournfully. While he hadn't truly come to terms to what Mitsu-buchou was doing, he could understand, if just barely. It seemed that Seigaku's entire journey to Nationals was focused on the idea that giving up was the worst thing a person could do, not losing, but not putting 100% into a match was.

Mind boggling it was, as but understandable. That being said, Tezuka-buchou lost 7-5 after a netball.

And now Momo-senpai arrived with Echizen, who had amnesia... of course he would.

Sato would have followed through with his threat but it seemed kind of useless. Honestly it kind of bothered Sato that Echizen was just sitting there, like a child, plinking racquet strings like a child. Weird. He could have never imagined Echizen to be like that.

Doubles 2 would be Kaidoh-senpai and Momo-senpai versus Kirihira-san and Yanagi-san.

* * *

Things deteriorated rather fast. Kaidoh-senpai's snakes were utterly useless; all of them and so was Inui-senpai's Data tennis and Waterfall serve. So the score turned out to be 4-0 and Echizen still didn't remember anything. Crap.

They were hoping that Echizen would suddenly remember how to play tennis and who he freaking was by watching the sport.

That being said, Kirihara-san also scared the crap out of him. Surprise. Surprise.

While Inui-senpai was falling into the depths of depression, Kaidoh-senpai was just getting fired up. He used the Gentleman's Laser Beam and just by using it, he made the score 1-4. He had modified to true Kaidoh-senpai style, it was still technically a straight shot but Kaidoh-senpai had placed a gyro spin on it.

Strange, Sato wasn't sure why Momo-senpai insisted calling Kaidoh-senpai a viper because most vipers, when they hunted, injected venom into their venoms, poisoning them. His tennis style, in fact, resembled a spotted hyena, which liked to chase down their prey until said prey grew tired. They also hunted in groups.

Sato mentioned this to Kaidoh-senpai once, who looked at Sato for the longest time until Sato felt too awkward and left. Maybe the nickname had to do with the fact that Kaidoh-senpai hissed. A lot.

Kaidoh-senpai's trademark style had distinctly using curved shots to tire and annoy the hell out of his opponents. But with a "straight shot" in his repertoire, he was definitely a lot more dangerous. Damn. Now. Sato had to find a way to counteract that too.

Now that Rikkaidai wasn't sure what shot to expect, Seigaku came back to life and the score was still 1-4 but things were looking up and they were down by just one break. Sato wasn't exactly sure where Kaidoh-senpai had the inspiration for a shot like the Gyro Laser, as his year mates dubbed it, but it certainly was useful.

Then Kaidoh-senpai hit Kirihara-senpai in the face and everything went to hell. Sato also found some new inspiration for his nightmares for the next month. Devil Akaya or Kirihara-san with white hair and very red eyes. Freaky.

Devil Akaya, in revenge and spite, started aiming at Inui-senpai and so Kaidoh-senpai went into Devil mode as well but Inui-senpai managed to calm him down. Yet, the damage of four shots to the body in consecutive fashion was too much for Inui-senpai and Seigaku forfeited Doubles 2, 1-5.

* * *

Seigaku was down 2-0 and it was time for Singles 2, Fuji-senpai against the trickster of the courts, Niou. Through a combination of all three of his first counters, the score was 2-0 in Fuji-senpai's favor. Now Fuji-senpai unleashed his 5th counter, Gate Keeper of the Hecatoncheires.

The score was 3-0 now and Niou played one of his tricks. He became... Mitsu-buchou? Sato didn't even know how that was possible. His voice, his stature, everything was perfect. Sato had at least known Mitsu-buchou for five years and he couldn't tell the difference. And Fuji-senpai was down love thirty. Crap, would Seigaku lose in three sets to the invincible Rikkaidai champions? Was their win at the Kanto Regional finals a fluke? And the score was 1-3, after Niou copied Tezuka Phantom.

This was not a pretty game. It was vicious and damaging. Niou copied Mitsu-buchou to perfection and Sato wouldn't have believed that Niou had copied Mitsu-nii if he had known that the real Mitsu-buchou was standing right next to him.

He had known about that match. It was the first time anyone had seen Fuji-senpai serious. Sato had never wanted to be on the other side of the court when Fuji-senpai was like that. Fuji-senpai had challenged Mitsu-buchou to a match and he had won but Fuji-senpai wasn't happy with that. He could have been boisterous and claim that he was the best player in the Junior High Seigaku tennis club. But he hadn't and was disappointed because he was expecting a better match from Mitsu-buchou. Unfortunately for Fuji-senpai, Mitsu-buchou hadn't been at full strength and he wouldn't be back to full strength until this year. They hadn't played a match together since then.

The score became 4-all and all seemed bleak. Rikkaidai had the momentum and the score became 5-4, Niou with the break. He had earned the right to serve out the match.

Niou/Mitsu-buchou began using Saiki Kanpatsu no Kiwami, instead of using four Zero no Shiki serves. Sato narrowed his eyes, brow furrowing in confusion. While Sato wasn't exactly sure what went on in Mitsu-buchou's head, Sato knew his play style like the back of his hand. If Niou's copy were a _perfect_ copy, he would have used Mitsu-buchou's Zero no Shiki serves because no one, including Mitsu-buchou, would willingly prolong a match with Fuji-senpai.

Niou had predicted the rally would end within six shots but Fuji-senpai had rallied beyond it by closing... his eyes. He broke through Saiki no Kanpatsu no Kiwami by closing his eyes. Fuji-senpai was relying on pure instinct, like the time he played Kirihara-san but if anything, he resembled Hyotei's Oshirtari when he played against Momo-senpai; he closed off his emotions, not allowing his opponent to predict his thoughts, his movements. It was utterly brilliant and completely like Fuji-senpai.

Fuji-senpai broke back and held his serve and now the score was 6-5 with Niou serving for a chance for a tiebreaker. His hypothesis was correct as Fuji-senpai revealed. Niou's copy was not a perfect copy. But now he shed his Mitsu-buchou copy for a new one, Shiraishi-san, the one person that Fuji-senpai lost to, this year, officially.

But the thing about Fuji-senpai was that he didn't like to lose, especially to a person that he had already lost to, twice. Fuji-senpai revealed yet another counter, Hoshi Hanabi, the 'Star Fireworks'.

Now Sato didn't fully understand how the move worked, something about a cord ball, using the wind and irregular spin, creating an irretrievable ball. Sato kind of gave up taking notes after that. Of course, the match was over but Sato officially resigned himself of never winning against Fuji-senpai. Not that he'd give up when he played him but it was sure as hell hard to beat him.

Fuji-senpai won the set 7-5.

* * *

Sato was being dragged again. Okay, so it wasn't like he was Higa Chuu's Singles 3 but he really disliked the fact that he was constantly treated like a rag doll. If anything, at least the amnesiac Echizen was getting the same exact treatment. Momo-senpai decided that they should try and re-teach Echizen tennis.

Momo-senpai was insane. Not that his idea was insane. It was actually kind of smart. No, that had to do with the part where he decided to serve Bullet Serves. At Echizen. Who didn't know how to play. And had the personality of a terrified five-year-old. Smart move.

"What are you doing?" Sato exploded, as Momo-senpai was in the motion of hitting another Bullet Serve. "Do want to traumatize him or something?"

"Echizen, he needs... he needs to remember," Momo-senpai crumpled in despair. These were the actions of a truly desperate man. Momo-senpai wanted Echizen to remember how to play, for Echizen to school him in tennis like old times but the time restraints were making him panicky and nervous. "Why! Why did you completely forget everything! Didn't we fight our way here together up until now! How could you possibly forget!" Momo-senpai fell to his knees, weeping.

Sato blinked, swallowing. How could Echizen forget Seigaku's struggles to get to this point? The tears shed, the blood loss, how could someone just forget those experiences, those memories that he made with his friends, his team?

"Um. Could you please teach me tennis again?" Echizen approached Momo-senpai and kept looking back and forth between Sato and Momo-senpai, who both stood in shock.

"Dun." Momo-senpai got off his knees. "We don't have a lot of time, so we're going to skip a lot of stuff, hehe." More like a crapload of stuff but whatever, Echizen had to be ready to face the Child of God.

Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly, Echizen was picking it up quickly, probably because of muscle memory. Then Momo-senpai decided to speed up the progress by hitting a Dunk Smash and Echizen froze. Sato's face fell; Momo-senpai was being too forceful.

"Um. That thing just now, can you please do it again?"

As fast as things were progressing, they needed to go even faster. The fastest way was to probably show Echizen how his Drives worked but it wasn't like Sato or Momo-senpai knew how to do them... but Sato did write how to do them in his notes.

Sato turned on his heel and ran back to the stadium.

It seemed when he returned that Inui-senpai had the exact same idea. At least, Sato thought it was Inui-senpai. Sure he had the glasses, the voice, the height and the uniform but he was also wrapped in bandages. Like a mummy. Sato wondered if it were truly Inui-senpai, how did he see through the bandages? Sato had to bite back a shriek when he saw Inui-senpai. Something told Sato that Inui-senpai and Kaidoh-senpai had left the hospital without permission, in true Seigaku fashion. Shocking.

Echizen got even better. Everyone he had played, well Echizen was playing them, right now At least in short bursts of matches. Hell even Sanada and Atobe-san came.

Eiji-senpai and Oishi-fukubuchou were holding them off as best as they could but they were already down 5-0 but they immediately went into Synchro when Sato yelled to the entire stadium that Echizen was regaining his memories.

They could do this. Echizen could do this. Seigaku could win.

* * *

Now they were racing down to the stadium. The brevity of situation finally hit Sato. Oh god, he was going to feel guilty about this for a while. They may have been able to teach Echizen the fundamentals of his tennis style in under an hour but he was facing the _Child of God_. The Child of God. What were they doing?

"Echizen... before you have to get on the court. Good luck," Sato breathed, a little winded by the stress and the running. "Yukimura won't go down easy."

"Ryuzaki." Echizen's voice cut through the air. "I don't remember much about you but why don't you call me by my given name, Ryoma?" He looked Sato squarely in the eye, completely rested.

Sato reddened but blamed his blush on the exhaustion and stress. "..."

"If I win, you have to call me Ryoma-kun." Sato was struck silent, blushing like he never had before.

When they finally arrived to the stadium, Ryoma-kun stayed back, most likely to make a flashy entrance; some personality traits could not be forgotten. Sato was greeted with a strange sight. Kintaro-kun was kneeling on the floor of the court, looking around blindly while sweating profusely. Within a few seconds, Sato understood at just what had happened. Kintaro-kun had challenged Yukimura to a match to buy Ryoma-kun some more time, only to get struck down by the Yips in only a matter of seconds. The Yips was a condition that Sato had yet to fully comprehend, something he had heard of but never seen. It was a mental affliction.

By playing Yukimura, the opponent lost all hope and lost control of their senses. Sato understood the concept; the mind had considerable influence on the body, evidenced by the placebo effect. So how was Ryoma-kun going to get out of this one?

Ryoma-kun started flashy. By using their Twist Serve, Drive A and the Cool Drive, he knocked Yukimura's jacket off his shoulder but he still lost the point. Sato gnawed on his knuckles; his teachers officially prohibited him from touching his nails. Ryoma-kun used all of his trump cards and he still lost the point? What would this mean for the entire match?

Yukimura was truly the Child of Gold. Hell, he was the God on the Middle School Tennis Circuit.

Ryoma-kun unleashed Muga no Kyouchi and used Big Bang as his serve, Entaku, Kamikakushi, Rai and Kintaro-kun's Super Ultra Great Delicious Crazy Moutain Storm and yet, he lost the point. Yukimura looked unaffected. Seigaku was pretty ramped up by Ryoma-kun's playing but there was definitely an unsettled feeling around the crowd. Ryoma-kun was using his trump cards and yet, he was losing. How?

Yukimura wasn't doing anything special. He was just returning the balls, unemotionally. Unaffected. Undisturbed. How could he keep just a straight face while playing? How could he be so normal? So calm? So unbothered?

Then Ryoma-kun used Hyakuren Jitoku no Kiwami. Then the match was utterly wrong. Ryoma-kun lost three games in consecutive fashion. Outclassed, outmatched. Sato's worst fears had come true. Ryoma-kun was simply too young, too untested to face a player of Yukimura's stature. Here was the crest of the wave that was Rikkaidai. Bolstered by an extremely strong team and by using his ability, Yukimura capped off the fact that his opponent utterly sucked. At least compared to him. Here was the reason why Rikkaidai had reigned for two whole years in terror and was thought to be indestructible.

Then hope seemed to be rejuvenated. Ryoma-kun got a point and then through a series of copied trump cards, he staved off losing a fourth consecutive game until Ryoma-kun flubbed a shot. And he nose bled, heavily. Did he not realize that his nose was bleeding? How could he not know? How could he not feel the liquid gushing from his nose?

Yukimura was setting up his execution, his mental execution. The drop of the hat was about to happen. He was getting ready to vanquish all of Seigaku's hope. This was a warning to all of Japan; this was Rikkaidai's will, _Always Win_. That what had happened at the Kanto regional finals would not happen again, not ever to Rikkaidai.

Sato finally understood the _Yips_. Inui's explanation and Kintaro-kun's vivid description helped. Pure fear shut down the body's ability to function, or to sense. And after the individual lost all hope, they gave up. They suffered and lost. Utterly beaten and drained of hope. Utterly desolate and desperate.

Holy shit. Ryoma-kun was going blind. Holy shit. How could Yukimura have such power? The ability to make one lose it sense, amazing and dangerous. Ryoma-kun couldn't see and yet, he was trying so hard. Could even see and he was trying to serve. Utter silence filled the court.

Sato heard something. Something that he couldn't really describe or explain, it sounded sad. It was the sound of crying. Not really sobbing but just tears. His tears. His small, runny and salty tears running down his face.

"Sato?" It was Taka-senpai with a bandage adorned on his cheek and his right arm in a sling.

"Yeah," Sato wiped the tears with his forearm. "I'm fine, it's just that Ryoma-kun..."

"It hurts?" Taka-senpai asked and Sato nodded in response. "It is hard seeing someone you like a lot in pain."

Sato gaped. "I beg your pardon?" He asked utterly confused.

"Sato-kun, you like Ryoma," Taka-senpai corrected. "It's clear as day."

Sato was flabbergasted. "I do not like Ryoma-kun." He sputtered in self-denial. But he had the niggling thought was absolutely true. He had it in the back in the mind. The reckless self worry that he had when Ryoma-kun had been injured, which had been lot in the season and the fact that he had made tennis ball shaped omunsubi, solely for Ryoma-kun. He had been so giddy when he made him like a love struck shoujo manga female protagonist. He had never done that before. He never made specialized rice balls for a single person and in such a stereotypical form. Ugh.

"Are you sure, Sato-kun?" Taka-senpai asked questioningly, skepticism flooding his voice.

"No," Sato answered sullenly. "But I'll get over it soon enough, Ryoma-kun's totally obsessed and I don't even stand a chance."

"Whatever you say, Sato-kun." Sato barely heard those words and chose to ignore him. There was something far more interesting happening on the tennis court.

"You know this tennis thing is kind of fun..." Ryoma-kun smirked as he got off his knees and the desperation that had clouded his face only moments ago had disappeared.

Had Ryoma-kun finally accessed the Ten'imuhou no Kiwami? The Pinnacle of Perfection?

He had. After that, it was utterly Ryoma-kun's victory; Yukimura didn't stand a chance. Ryoma-kun flustered Yukimura, who could react to any of Ryoma-kun's shots. It was amazing.

It was then revealed that Ryoma-kun was Samurai Nanjiroh's heir and son. Someone had asked that the reason why Ryoma-kun was capable of reaching Ten'imuhou no Kiwami because he was the famed professional's son. He was quickly shot down.

The Samurai revealed that the key to unlocking Ten'imuhou no Kiwami was to enjoy tennis without any regrets. The stress a player endured when playing a match was incomparable. They had to ensure that they didn't make any mistakes, they didn't look like a fool and with a team relying on your playing, said stress doubled, easily. Without fear, a player could reach the greatest heights. Sato thought that was revealing only half the story.

People just couldn't reach the Pinnacle of Perfection, willy nilly. No, they had to get through Saiki Kanpatsu no Kiwami and Hyakuren Jitoku no Kiwami and as if that were easy. It seemed that to unlock Ten-imuho no Kiwami, a player had to enjoy tennis and be capable of Saiki Kanpatsu no Kiwami and Hyakuren Jitoku no Kiwami. Again, not an easy task. Also who were capable of one of them, like Mitsu-buchou, were stressed by their own dedication to the team.

But in the end, they did it. Seigaku had done it. After an unreasonable drought of failure and loss after Samurai Nanjiroh, Seigaku was back on top. They had won Nationals.

* * *

Sato inhaled deeply and bounced the ball a couple times, glancing at his opponent who looked edgy and nervous, shifting around the corner of the deuce side. "40-15," Sato called out, tossing the ball, curving an arc behind his head. It shot forward, landing in a corner and spun out, leaving his opponent desperately out of balance as well as acing his opponent.

Changeover. He switched the scorecards from 3-0 to 5-0. He was beating up a senpai, a transfer who thought he would try for the tennis team. And he felt kind of bad, but as Mitsu-bucho always said, sympathy led to loses and one should never lose because they left their guard down.

Sato took a gulp of water and wiped his slightly disgusting towel across his face, getting some nonexistent sweat. He bounced on the balls of his feet, lightly jogging over the opposite deuce side, hoping to break his opponent's serve for the third and hopefully last time to close out the set.

Summer had passed. The third years had retired ad Echizen was gone, disappearing across the Pacific, having returned back to America. Seeing as he had already conquered the junior high circuit in a matter of a very short year, there really wasn't a reason to stay in Japan if he wanted to turn pro. More competition, Sato figured, and he couldn't blame him. More improvement.

Kaidoh-senpai was now Kaidoh-buchou and Momo-senpai was now Momo-fukubuchou but Momo-fukubuchou liked yelling as if he were the captain. Of course, Kaidoh-buchou hadn't stopped being intimidating.

It was the interschool competition of the summer and Sato finally felt like he was competent enough to become a Regular of Seigaku. He preferred alternating serves and picking at his opponent's weaknesses, much to his opponent's avail. That being said, he still preferred playing doubles but he couldn't see a reason for why wouldn't play doubles this year. No one really liked their weaknesses deconstructed in front of them, Sato included.

His opponent served to Sato's forehand, something that he did often with no variety; Sato noted and used the knowledge accordingly. Sato returned it crosscourt, back to the opponent's forehand, as he was a right-hander as well. Opponent F was a serve and volley type of player but not on the level of Eiji-senpai, as in he had no other weapons. He was not guaranteed to be at the net... unless Sato let him.

Sato hit a weak drop shot, short but not at all low to the ground, and his opponent pounced on it, probably thinking that Sato had made an ill-fated error, but of course, Sato was setting up a rather simple trap because he knew better to do something as risky and stupid as a random drop shot.

The ball was returned to his forehand and he spun the ball delicately, curling it over his opponent's head, a small, duplicate copy of Oishi-senpai's Moon Volley. Perfect, it landed a few inches, inside of the court, from the baseline, leaving the opponent unable to return it.

15-0.

This match, this tournament was going well, he was placed in Block D with Kaidoh-buchou and Momo-fukubuchou in other blocks. He was essentially given free reign to mess around. Hopefully his success would quell any doubts about Sato being worthy of being a Regular.

He deserved this; he had wanted it more than three years.

* * *

Omake:

"So... Ryoma-kun." Eiji-senpai corned Sato after Nationals had ended. He had the look, the look that he would forever hold the reason of why Sato had changed the way he addressed Ryoma-kun.

"What about him," Sato responded, despondently. He avoided Eiji-senpai's eyes.

"You like him," Eiji-senpai enuciated slowly, his eyes gleaming with glee.

"I don't like him," Sato hissed in an undertone. "Why do people think that I like him? First it's Taka-senpai and now it's you..."

"It's not just me, it's the entire team." Eiji-senpai informed. "Inui's been rattling of percentages every time you interact, he says that you two have 0% of love but Momo and I think that's because Ochibi is oblivious." At Sato's astounded look, he added, "Momo's been helping me follow you guys around."

"What!" Sato barked. "Following us around? Oh my god, this entire year? Does Mitsu-buchou think that?

Eiji-senpai shrugged. "Nothing about Tezuka but who knows what goes on in his head."

"You are insane, all of you."

* * *

Second Omake:

Sato was wearing a rather fashionable looking tuxedo, he had seen Mitsu-buchou's suit and he was aghast, at his latest piano concert. He had managed learning the Waldstein Sonata in under two months. Two extremely difficult months where Sato was extremely tempted to skip school in order to learn the damn song.

"To-kun!" Eiji-senpai tackled him once again. "Thanks for the tickets!" They were both currently backstage; Sato having given him backstage passes along with the tickets. He actually gave the entire team the passes and tickets and he wasn't sure who accepted them and came. "That was so amazing, what did you play?"

"Turkish March and Waldstein Sonata," Sato looked around aimlessly, his eyes widened. "Did everyone come to the concert?"

"Of course," Eiji-senpai did his trademark victory sign. "We were all super impressed," he drew in closer to Sato, slinging an arm around him. "Including Ochibi..."

Sato flushed. "Doesn't mean anything," Sato insisted. "Nothing is going to happen," he muttered and paused, his eyes alighting on a new figure. "Is that Choutarou from Hyotei?"

"What?" Eiji-senpai looked around. The tall shy second year of Hyotei was a pianist; the image of him trigged Sato's memory of seeing him playing at the concert when Sato should have been doing another practice rendition of Waldstein Sonata at his new teacher's request, the female one having retired two weeks ago due to exhaustion.

"I didn't know he was from the Institute," Sato mused. "Come on." He dragged Eiji-senpai by the arm, Eiji-senpai having played a set of doubles with the second year against Shishido, Choutarou's doubles partner from Hyotei and Oishi-fukubuchou.

"Choutarou-senpai?" Sato asked politely. "I'm Sato Ryuzaki, a student at Seigaku. You're from Hyotei, right? What floor are you on?"

"Oh, Sato-san. I'm a second floor," Choutarou-san answered. "You don't have to call me senpai."

Sato smiled, "Will you try for first floor this year?" He asked.

"I might but I still need a _Shadow_ to support me," Choutarou informed.

"A shadow, To-kun?" Eiji-senpai inquired.

"A shadow refers to a first floor player as there are less than ten existing right now and as they cast a figurative and literal shadow over the Institute. They're known as the best and while there are several good players at the Institute, the first floor players are the most well-known." Sato explained.

"Are you a shadow? Eiji-senpai questioned.

"I suppose I am a shadow."

* * *

**Comments:**

I finished! Well, only the first half, the other half, I have to plan out again.

Not really, as with all my stories, I have no guidelines. I don't plan out every little detail as some writers do but instead, I have Point A and Point B and I can do what ever I want to get to Point B. Maybe I'm just weird like that.

So Sato's in love with Echizen, Ryoma-kun. Their love shall be a work in progress.

Guess what Shadow has to do with Sato? FYI, look at Kuroko no Basuke for inspiration.

No facts for this chapter, or ever, I guess. Thanks for reading!

Arika_Ito


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